Jury awards $8.32M to man shot by deputy

A federal jury has ordered three Wake County sheriff’s deputies to pay an Apex man $8.32 million after he was stopped and then unlawfully shot while on his property. Robert Zaytoun and Matt Ballew of Zaytoun Ballew & Taylor in Raleigh and Ryan Oxendine and Jim Barnes of Oxendine Barnes & Associates in Raleigh represented the plaintiff, Michael Morgan. The attorneys said they believe the verdict to be the largest police misconduct civil rights verdict ever in North Carolina, and it is the largest such verdict ever reported to Lawyers Weekly.

The incident occurred on July 5, 2013, when Morgan, the owner of a tree service, was using his truck to transport debris to a large field that he owned. He was about to reach the field when he passed Ricky Spivey, a Wake County sheriff’s deputy, who then turned around, according to his complaint. By the time Spivey reached Morgan’s property, Morgan had begun unloading the debris. Spivey rolled down his window and told Morgan to approach his car. Spivey, who claimed that Morgan was driving recklessly, demanded Morgan show him his driver’s license and registration, and Morgan complied. 

At the time, deputies Joshua Legan and Casey Miller were more than 20 miles away from the scene. Even though Spivey reported a routine traffic stop and did not request any backup over the radio, Legan and Miller hurried into their separate patrol cars and proceeded to drive at extreme and unsafe speeds, through two-lane residential streets, toward Spivey’s location, according to the complaint. 

Legan searched Morgan’s truck without permission and Spivey charged him with reckless driving. Afterwards, Morgan got into his truck and began performing “donuts” and “fishtails” elsewhere on his property.

According to the complaint, Spivey drove his car toward Morgan, and Morgan stopped his truck. Spivey yelled for Morgan to move the truck out of his way, and Morgan told him to go around him. Spivey got out of his vehicle while brandishing a baton, and approached the driver’s side of Morgan’s truck in an “obviously hostile manner.”

Morgan presented evidence at trial showing that, as Spivey jerked him up and out of his seat through the window, he felt an impact on his head, and he was unsure if the impact came from Spivey’s baton or from his head hitting the door frame as he was being pulled out of the window. Legan drew a taser, and Miller drew his pistol and ran to the passenger window of the truck with his pistol loaded and cocked, and pointed at Morgan, the complaint says. 

Morgan’s foot came off the brake of the truck and it began idling forward. Spivey began pulling Morgan’s body through the driver’s window, at which point his tee shirt ripped, causing him to drop back into the driver’s seat. (Morgan’s attorneys presented the shirt into evidence at trial.) Immediately after Morgan landed back onto the driver’s seat, he attempted to push the brake of the truck to stop it from rolling forward. At that moment, Miller opened fire, shooting Morgan twice, once in the left knee and once in the right hand.

“Morgan watched as three fingers on his right hand exploded in front of him. He managed to put the truck in park with his left hand, open his driver door, and collapse onto the ground,” the complaint says. “He screamed in excruciating and horrible pain as he lay on the ground bleeding While writhing in pain, Morgan called out, “I need EMS! I need an ambulance!”

The employee witnessed the entire incident. He testified that the deputies ordered him to get on the ground. Miller then placed him in handcuffs and the employee could hear Morgan screaming in pain. The employee called out several times, “where did you hit him? Where did you hit him?” Spivey walked over and responded, “It don’t matter, that’s what happens when you mess with the big dogs.”

Morgan’s employee watched the three deputies gather together and start talking with one another far enough away where the employee could not hear what they were saying. The evidence showed that the deputies used the opportunity to fabricate a story of what occurred in the field to make their conduct and the shooting appear justified. 

Morgan was charged and eventually acquitted of felony assault with a deadly weapon on a law enforcement officer, assault inflicting serious injury on a law enforcement officer, assault on a law enforcement officer, kidnapping a law enforcement officer, and resisting arrest. He was incarcerated for over four months until his family posted a sufficient bond for his pretrial release, after which was released on strict house arrest status for more than 500 days as he awaited his trial date.

Morgan asserted that he received subpar medical care for his gunshot wounds during his incarceration. He was taken from the shooting scene directly to Duke Hospital, where he underwent trauma surgery. Within two days of surgery, Wake County sheriff’s deputies arrested him at the hospital and transported him to the Wake County Detention Center, where he was booked, processed, and had his mugshot taken while still in his hospital gown and wheelchair. The defense showed this mugshot photo to the jury during opening statements and multiple times throughout the trial. 

The deputies asserted the affirmative defense of qualified immunity throughout the litigation and repeatedly at the civil trial. In support of their defense, the deputies requested that the jury be required to answer numerous special factual interrogatories. The jury found in Morgan’s favor on each of the defense interrogatories.

After an eight-day trial, the jury awarded Morgan $125,000 for the unlawful search of his truck, $350,000 for unlawful arrest, $1 million for excessive force, $3 million for unjustified use of deadly force, $2 million for criminal prosecution without probable cause, and a total of $1.85 million in punitive damages apportioned among the three officers. 

Morgan dropped any claims for economic damages prior to trial, including any claim for medical expenses or past of future lost wages, and proceeded only with claims for noneconomic damages such as pain, suffering, permanent injury, and deprivation of liberty damages.

Oxendine said that the defense offered $25,000 at mediation and filed an offer of judgment for $150,000 prior to the pre-trial conference, and then increased the offer of judgment to $400,000 the week before trial. The defense offered to settle the case for $1.5 million about 15 minutes after the jury started deliberating, he said.

Paul Gessner of the Wake County Sheriff’s Office in Raleigh, Nick Ellis of Poynter Spruill in Raleigh and J. Matthew Little of Teague Campbell in Raleigh represented the deputies. Gessner referred questions to the Wake County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, who did not respond to a request for comment.

VERDICT REPORT — POLICE MISCONDUCT

Amount: $8.325 million

Injuries alleged: Gunshot wounds, deprivations of constitutional rights

Case name: Michael Morgan v. Ricky Spivey, Casey Miller and Joshua Legan in their individual and official capacities as Wake County Sheriff’s Deputies, Donnie Harrison, in his official capacity as Sheriff of Wake County, North Carolina, and The Ohio Casualty Company

Court: U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina

Case No.: 5:16-CV-00365

Judge: Louise Flanagan

Date of verdict: Sept. 25

Highest offer: $400,000

Insurance carrier: National Casualty Company

Attorneys for plaintiff: Robert Zaytoun and Matt Ballew of Zaytoun Ballew & Taylor in Raleigh and Ryan Oxendine and Jim Barnes Oxendine Barnes & Associates in Raleigh

Attorneys for defendant: Paul Gessner of the Wake County Sheriff’s Office in Raleigh, Nick Ellis of Poynter Spruill in Raleigh, and J. Matthew Little of Teague Campbell in Raleigh