A Georgia man has filed a $1 million lawsuit after a sheriff’s deputy ordered him to decapitate his dog under threat of imprisonment.
Joe Nate Goodwin of Crawford County, Georgia was at work last December when his dog, Big Boy, was shot and killed by a Sheriff’s deputy. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the deputy was responding to a neighbor’s report about a dog bite when 2-year-old Big Boy allegedly “lunged” at the him.
Goodwin’s girlfriend called him to say that Big Boy had been shot and was laying in the front yard by their mailbox. “I left work and went straight home, found my dog dead in my yard,” Goodwin said in an interview with The Macon Telegraph.
After arriving home, Goodwin met with the deputy, who was civil and and “nice enough.” Then James Hollis, a sheriff’s investigator in plain clothes, arrived on the scene to question Goodwin about Big Boy’s vet records.
As their conversation continued, Goodwin became concerned and started recording a video. Moment’s later Hollis asked Goodwin to decapitate Big Boy and turn his head over to the sheriff’s office for a rabies test.
Rabies is a virus that infects a mammal’s central nervous system causing brain disease and death. It is often spread through the bite of an infected animal and can be transmitted to humans.
“I knew I had to have some way of proving this,” Goodwin said. “I just don’t think I was supposed to be the one to remove my dog’s head the way they made me do it.”
Multiple videos were shared on Facebook where they quickly went viral before being removed due to their graphic content.
When Goodwin refuses to cut off his dead dog’s head, Hollis threatens to have him arrested. “You can be charged with disorderly conduct,” Hollis says on video. “You can sit there all you want and try to record all you want to record.”
“I’m protecting myself,” Goodwin shouts. “Y’all come up to me… I’m reacting to having to cut my … dog’s head off.”
“We asked you to remove the dog’s head,” Hollis said. “And you’re refusing, right?”
The deputy who killed Big Boy attempts to intervene asking the investigator to calm down. “We don’t know this process either,” he tries to explain.
The officers watched as Goodwin removed Big Boy’s head and placed it in a plastic bag off camera. In the final video the two deputies can be heard speaking with Goodwin’s girlfriend.
“She gonna place that into the bag and they got to freeze it,” Hollis says. “That can be tested for rabies, OK?” He continued to explain that the test must be done that evening. Goodwin’s girlfriend said she cried the whole way as she drove Big Boy’s head to the county health department where she met an employee named Roberta around 7:00 PM.
After the footage of this horrific encounter went viral, the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office was flooded with calls from outraged viewers. Hundreds of people across the country called to complain about James Hollis’ conduct.
Sheriff Lewis Walker was unavailable for comment, but officials confirmed that the sheriff’s office has started an internal investigation.
WARNING: The footage below contains distressing conduct. Viewer discretion is advised.
Goodwin later met with The Macon Telegraph for an interview.
Now Goodwin has filed a 2018 lawsuit against the county, Sheriff Lewis Walker and deputies James Hollis and Wesley Andrew Neesmith. “Under extreme emotional duress and distress, and under threat of incarceration and physical harm, Plaintiff Goodwin was forced to decapitate the dog with a knife,” states the lawsuit.
“I can’t recall something like this (case) ever,” said attorney Reza Sedghi to the AJC. “It’s so outrageous that I just can’t image how anyone would feel in his position.”
Watch the full news report below,