County faces lawsuit from Sheriff Department's actions in 12th Street siege case | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This press release originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.case

    Regular readers of this site know about The Seige on 12th Street. The first article beginning the series is entitled "To Protect and Serve--The siege on 12th street" Part I begins the story from the initial call to the Washington Police Department switchboard asking for help. The subsequent articles chronicle the events that followed.

    Now, nearly twenty months later, the county faces a major lawsuit over the incident, and may be involved in yet another one in the coming months according to reliable sources familiar with the case. This suit is being initiated by Carter Leary, who is being represented by Attorney David Sutton.

    Legal authorities not involved in the case with whom the Beaufort Observer has consulted tell us that Leary has an excellent case. Leary was forceably arrested while he was in the act of trying to disarm his nephew Gary Gautier. He was acting with the knowledge and tacit consent of the Washington Police chief who told the Observer that he knew Leary was going to try to talk Gautier into surrendering his weapons. But things went bad. Very badly.

    Leary was successful where the police had not be in getting Gautier to communicate and ultimately agreed to surrender his weapons. Gautier has told members of his family that he feared that the police were going to kill him. In spite of that fear Leary talked Gautier into giving him his weapons.

    But as Leary was securing the weapons a "SWAT" team from the Beaufort County Sheriff's department, without authorization from the incident commander on the scene (Chief Mic Reid), rushed Leary and ultimately forcibly seized him, pushing him to the ground and hitting him several times according to witnesses--neighbors of Leary's. One witness told the Observer that "I thought they were going to kill him. He's an old man and just recently had surgery. Four or five of them jumped on him and one of them held a rifle to his head. I thought they were going to kill him."

    It could have turned out much worse. One of the deputies had an M-16 assault rifle. Apparently this was the rifle the witness said was trained on Mr. Leary's head. Immediately after the incident several .223 unfired rounds were found on the ground where Leary had been subdued. Two of the shell cases had indentions on them consistent with having been ejected from a jammed weapon. This led to speculation that the officer tried to discharge the weapon but it jammed.

    What police reports show is that after arresting Leary the deputies entered his residence and searched it, seizing several guns. The deputies had earlier demanded that Leary give them the guns but he refused, telling the deputies that they were not to enter his residence without a search warrant. They did so anyway, without a warrant.

    Leary was taken to the magistrate's office for booking. The magistrate released him without bond.

    Leary was eventually tried on the charges but the case was dismissed. You can read about that by clicking here.

    Now Leary has retained an attorney who has demanded that Sheriff meet with him and Mr. Leary to discuss remedying the wrong they see that was done to Mr. Leary. Whether a suit will actually be filed and tried depends on the county.

    The county has several others cases pending against it. One of those was from an incident in June of 2012 in which the same SWAT team forcibly arrested Keith Small on drug charges. Indications are Small suffered irreparable injuries and some reports say that he has been in a comatose state since his arrest. His family refused to talk under advice of their attorney. But we understand from reliable sources that they too are negotiating with the county in that case.

    Neither Leary nor his attorney David Sutton would comment on Leary's case. But we did obtain a copy of a letter dated November 9, 2012. You can read the letter by clicking on the links below:

    Page 1

    http://www.beaufortobserver.net/pdf/9981.112112/Sutton-2-(2).gif

    http://www.beaufortobserver.net/pdf/9981.112112/Sutton-3-(3).gif

    Check back later. We'll keep you informed as the case proceeds.