Greene woman sues sheriff over Taser use

STANARDSVILLE — A Greene County woman who was zapped with a Taser in front of her daughter has filed an $850,000 lawsuit against a deputy and the sheriff of the Greene County Sheriff’s Office.
Pamela Collier filed the complaint against Deputy Kevin Fried and Sheriff J. Scott Haas on July 27 in Greene Circuit Court. Collier accuses Fried of “oppressive,” “intentional” and “unlawful” behavior by entering her home without a warrant on Sept. 15, 2007, according to the suit.
Haas declined to comment on the suit.
“On advice of counsel, we’ve been told not to comment on it,” Haas said. “We disagree with the facts that were in the suit.”

An attorney representing Haas and Fried is supposed to file a response to the complaint this month.
Collier and her attorney, C. Waverly Parker, also declined to comment for this story.
According to the lawsuit, Collier and her then-4-year-old daughter were sleeping on a couch on the evening of Sept. 15, 2007, in their Spotswood Trail home. Timothy Breeden, Collier’s “domestic companion” and the father of the girl, also lived in the home.
The lawsuit said the mother and daughter were awakened by a banging noise at the kitchen door. Collier said in the suit that she went to the door and saw Fried pushing against the door with his shoulder and heard him telling her to open the door. According to the complaint, Collier questioned whether the officer needed a warrant to come in, and Fried told her that he didn’t need one and threatened to break down the door if she didn’t open it.

Breeden then came into the room and told Collier to open the door, the suit said.
“As soon as the door was unlocked (and utterly absent invitation), Fried, fully uniformed and armed as a deputy sheriff, slammed the door open with such force that it damaged the trim around it, and barreled through the doorway across the threshold of the home,” the complaint said.
The suit does not address why Fried was attempting to gain access to the home. The sheriff’s report could not be obtained by press time.
According to the lawsuit, Fried then used a Taser on Collier, pinned her with his body, turned her onto her stomach and handcuffed her.
“While [Collier] was pinned down, her daughter … was watching, pleading with Fried to get off her mother and leave her mother alone,” the lawsuit said.
The young girl was taken by authorities to a neighbor’s home, the suit said, and Collier’s wrists and ankles were cuffed until she was taken to the Central Virginia Regional Jail in Orange. According to the complaint, Fried brought charges against her the next day.
According to court rec-ords, Collier was charged with resisting arrest, assault on a law enforcement officer and obstruction of justice in connection with the events. Both Parker and the complaint said Collier was acquitted of the charges in Greene Circuit Court about a year after in the incident. The resolution of the case could not be confirmed by press time.

Collier said in the suit that she also was charged with showing a reckless disregard for her daughter’s life, although information about that charge was not immediately available. The lawsuit claims that Collier and Breeden were separated from their daughter for two months with limited contact until Collier completed parenting classes. According to the complaint, the girl was cared for by Breeden’s mother.
According to court records, Breeden was charged with obstruction of justice and attempting to elude police for a Sept. 15, 2007, incident. The charges were dismissed three months later.
Collier claims in the suit that Fried never had or attempted to get a warrant to enter the home, that he used “excessive force” in restraining Collier and that Fried’s actions caused her anguish and special expenses.

A court date in this case has not yet been set.
Parker previously represented Greene grandmother Linda C. Morris in a $1.2 million civil suit against Haas and a deputy. The suit said Deputy Paul R. Lester II trespassed on Morris’ property while trying to give Morris’ then-3-year-old granddaughter to the girl’s mother.
The child’s parents had a dispute over the girl’s paternity, but her father’s lawyer told her that he should keep custody of the child until the next hearing unless a court order was issued. Lester did not have a court order, the suit said. Morris settled for $85,000 in March 2008.