The Augusta Commission agreed to settle with a woman who reported being brutalized during a wrongful arrest by a Richmond County sheriff’s deputy.
Kathey Sheppard sued the sheriff’s office and Deputy Richard Russell over a May 16, 2020 incident at Olmstead Homes.
Sheppard, longtime school custodian, was visiting family members at the housing project and parked her car. She said Russell forced her out of the car at gunpoint, choked her and knocked her down, then charged her with obstruction of an officer.
In his arrest warrant, Russell claimed she was stopped in the road and he was checking to see if the car was stolen.
Sheppard’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, said Russell had already verified the white Mustang wasn’t stolen the day before. In addition, his body camera footage did not start until he was wresting Sheppard to the ground.
Sheppard even pleaded guilty to misdemeanor obstruction, but later withdrew her plea.
Filed by attorney Tanya Jeffords, the federal case alleged violations of the Fourth and Fourteenth amendments for arrest without reasonable suspicion or probable cause, excessive use of force in an arrest and arrest based on false allegations.
The case went to mediation before a bankruptcy judge. The commission approved a $75,000 settlement with Sheppard on Tuesday.
Russell, who resigned last year, was one of four deputies investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and later cleared by District Attorney Jared Williams in the 2021 tasing death of Jermaine Jones Jr.
