QUITMAN COUNTY RESIDENTS ALLEGE MISTREATMENT BY SHERIFF'S DEPUTIES

A Columbus attorney hired to represent eight Quitman County, Ga.,
residents -- who were arrested last week in connection with what
authorities called a small-scale riot in Georgetown -- has accused
Sheriff Steve Newton and his deputies of employing "heavy-handed
tactics" on citizens to include public strip searches and racial profiling.

During a news conference Friday in Columbus, attorney Joseph Wiley
addressed several issues that he and his clients believe precipitated
the Aug. 27 confrontation in which an estimated 200 Quitman County
residents faced-off against officers from several surrounding agencies
in front of the Georgetown Courthouse. Wiley specifically accused
Newton, who was elected sheriff in January, of encouraging and
condoning such policing methods as public strip searches and racial
profiling in an attempt to fulfill his campaign promise of ridding the
county of drugs.

"My office has performed an investigation in Quitman County --
Georgetown and what we have discovered is that the sheriff's office is
using heavy-handed, unlawful improper police tactics," Wiley said.

"They've made over 250 arrests since Sheriff Newton has been elected
and that's only a six-man department. That's an extreme amount of
arrests for a small area, a small department. The police tactics being
used that we have discovered are egregious, they are unlawful and
that's why you had the riot that took place last week."

Street search

Calvin Richardson, of Quitman County, said he and his wife were
driving on Highway 82 on Aug. 24 when two sheriff's deputies pulled
him over and demanded he get out of his vehicle.

"He patted me down, searched me, didn't find anything," Richardson
said. "So then he said he was going to strip search me on the side of
the road. So I said, 'No, you can't do that.' He said yes he could. So
he put latex gloves on, pulled me to the side, pulled all my clothes
off, bent me over, used the gloves on me and then after he didn't find
anything he got up and said he was going to the courthouse and he'd be
right back. When he came back from the courthouse he brought his dog."

Richardson claims the deputy and the dog both searched his vehicle
several times, however it wasn't until the fourth or fifth attempt to
locate drugs that any were found, leading Richardson to allege the
officer put the contraband in his car.

Denise Richardson, Calvin Richardson's wife, said she too was
strip-searched in the public restroom of a nearby gas station
convenience store at the hands of a female EMT who had been called to
the scene.

In response to the Richardson's accusations, Newton said Friday
afternoon that he did receive one complaint regarding a public strip
search that had allegedly been conducted by one of his officers. The
claim is being investigated internally, Newton said. If the accusation
proves to be true, the sheriff said he'll take appropriate
disciplinary action.

In response to Wiley's comments regarding the alleged habitual
mistreatment of residents by sheriff's deputies, Newton denied that
his deputies are "heavy-handed" or that they use racial profiling to
initiate drug investigations.

Interfering with the law

"There's a history of people interfering with deputies doing their
jobs," Newton said. "I've asked the community not to do that. The
tactics of certain criminals is to make all these accusations in order
to force us to quit enforcing the drug laws."

The sheriff did confirm that his office has made more than 250
self-initiated and investigatory arrests since January, and the
majority are drug related. "Nearly as many whites have been arrested
as blacks," the sheriff said.

Newton added that when he took office in January drugs and crime were
a big problem in the community. Now, the sheriff says, most residents
feel safer.

"There was no law and order," Newton said.

Wiley called Friday for Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue to declare a
state of emergency in Quitman County as a short term solution what he
called a "volatile situation."