The Webster Progress-Times

A Eupora woman is suing Webster County alleging she was falsely arrested on drug charges last year.

Latisha S. Pittman filed suit Jan. 27 against the county in U.S. District Court in Oxford. Her claim, which presents only one side of the legal argument, is for negligence, arrest without probable cause and for wrongful imprisonment.

Pittman, 27, was arrested last April at her Westwood Park apartment, allegedly for the sale of drugs, and bail was set at $200,000. The arresting officer listed on the booking entry in the county jail docket, dated April 12, was then-sheriff's deputy Tim Allen, who no longer works for the Sheriffs' Department.

The suit states that Pittman was confined in jail from some time after 11 p.m. April 11 until about 11 a.m. April 13, when she was released and advised that all charges were being dismissed.

Pittman alleges that the officers causing her arrest failed to take reasonable care to ascertain whether probable cause existed for arrest. If they made a reasonable investigation, according to her complaint, they would have learned that she was at her place of employment, Pepper's Race II convenience store, when the drug activities of which she was accused occurred.

"Apparently, the officers simply assumed that the person selling the drugs was Ms. Pittman without making any investigation to determine that the right person had been identified," the suit claims.

Contributing causes of her arrest, Pittman asserts, include:

¥ failure of the Sheriff's Department to include black officers in the drug investigation whom she said would have confirmed that she would not be involved in drugs and could have demonstrated that she was not the person involved in drug sales;

¥ the department having no reasonable method of confirming the uncorroborated claim of an informant or the claim of county deputies that the person being arrested was the one who had sold drugs;

¥ the county having placed no method of making an adequate investigation for determining that the person being arrested for drugs was actually the person who had sold drugs.

Pittman claims her arrest constituted gross negligence and deliberate indifference to her rights. Her mental stress was so severe that she had to see a physician and miss work, according to the court records. She is seeking $50,000 in damages for alleged mental anxiety, stress and embarrassment.

Pittman's name was among seven recorded in the jail arrest docket that were temporarily taped over, as reported by this newspaper at the time. All of those whose names were concealed had been arrested on drug charges. Allen and Sheriff Phillip Smith told the Progress-Times then that the names were being concealed temporarily until a related investigation was completed.

Pittman's attorney is Jim Waide of Tupelo and her case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Glen Davidson. Chancery Clerk Russ Turner informed the Board of Supervisors on Feb. 17 that the county had been served with a court summons in the civil case. Buchanan Meek Jr., county board attorney, told the Progress-Times it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the pending litigation.