CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023 — Police victim Jessica Hedgcock today yields her rights to sue city of Cleveland for false imprisonment and false arrest in a customary abuse of the public that police, lawyers, judges and the people themselves permit with little murmur.
By David Tulis / NoogaRadio Network
That abuse is violation of the warrantless arrest law in Tennessee, and Mrs. Hedgcock lets go the harm done her during the time of state-based terror called Covid-19 — she was arrested without the required warrant in Cleveland Clinic for having a bare face Feb. 2 of 2022.
“I don’t necessarily know how to put everything down on paper the way that I potentially would. But that’s not what it comes down to for me. What it comes down to is: You can always forgive people for the things they’ve wronged you. There’s power in forgiveness. And after everything I’ve been through in fighting hospitals for my son’s medical care and being abused by the conventional medical system, there’s great power.”
Her lawsuit would have been worth at least F$75,000 in damages. She did not find an attorney to take a civil case in the arrest.
At the eighth trip to the court that there was no establishment of probable cause. A judge found probable cause in the ninth hearing. A trial is ahead if the Bradley district attorney does not drop the prosecution.
I had suggested she could have done better on her own than with attorney Kelly Ingle of Maryville, Tenn., aiding her in the trespass defense, with swifter results. I have published a draft brief in support of motion to dismiss, one she declined to use, and which Mr. Ingle said is “interesting” but not interesting enough, Mrs. Hedgcock says. The link is here:
“I think that cop felt very ashamed by what he did,” Mrs. Hedgcock says. “And to be shamed by a woman is — that probably didn’t feel too good. And I think any more would be a harsh rebuke on him. And, honestly, we all need forgiveness. For me, when I forgive somebody, right now it brings me more joy.”
The limitation statute says you have to sue within a year of the tort. The officer under T.C.A. § 40-7-104 make an arrest for a misdemeanor if it occurs in his presence and is a “public offense.” A public offense is distinct from an “offense” for being in the nature of a “breach of the peace” or “breach of the peace threatened.”
Jessica Hedgcock gives a radio interview starting at 43:00 on Facebook.
