BATON ROUGE – An Assumption Parish man alleges he was illegally arrested after filing a public records request to the parish sheriff's office.
Timothy Dill filed a complaint on Aug. 25 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana against Sheriff Jeffrey Wiley and Kevin B. Anderson alleging that the law enforcement officers violated his protected rights under the Civil Rights Act.
According to the complaint, a restraining order was issued against the plaintiff in 2012 listing Jane Tridico Sholmire as the protected person. On Aug. 17, 2015, the plaintiff had submitted several public records requests to Wiley and one was addressed to Wanza Tridico, a former sheriff's office employee.
The plaintiff alleges that on Aug. 25, 2015, defendant Anderson arrested him at his home and transported him to the Ascension Parish Jail. The suit states the warrant stated that the plaintiff attempted to contact Sholmire via Tridico, her aunt. He spent seven days in jail and was required to spend sums of money for legal defense, the suit states.
The plaintiff holds Wiley and Anderson responsible because Anderson failed to advise a judge that the plaintiff was not attempting to directly contact Tridico, but only filing a public records request.
The plaintiff seeks judgment against defendants for all damages, plus attorney's fees, costs of this action and for all other relief. He is represented by Robert T. Garrity Jr. in Harahan.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana Case number 3:16-cv-00565