A man who suffered multiple broken bones in his face during a lengthy beating at the DeKalb County jail has settled his federal lawsuit against a dozen county employees, including the three jailers now facing trial for assaulting him.
Anthony David Nute received a “significant” settlement from the insurance company that represents DeKalb County’s jailers, said his attorney Griffin Sikes this week.
“They insisted on confidentiality about the amount of money they paid to settle the case,” said Sikes, a civil rights lawyer in Montgomery. “I wish I could tell you more. These confidentiality agreements are not in the public interest.”
Police in the tiny town of Rainsville in northeast Alabama arrested Nute on the morning of March 1, 2020, after someone called to report that he was behaving strangely in his front yard.
Body camera footage showed Nute staring blankly toward the sky and walking aimlessly in the yard in front of his home as the town’s fire and rescue squad tried to assess his condition. (He was later charged with public intoxication, as well as misdemeanors for resisting arrest and pushing a first responder.)
After Rainsville police arrested Nute and took him to the DeKalb County jail, surveillance video partially captured three employees kicking, beating and Tasing him.
Nute’s cheekbone, eye socket, nose, nasal canal and ribs were fractured, according to the lawsuit. He also suffered head trauma, as well as multiple bruises and abrasions to his face, head, neck, shoulders, chest, pelvic area, back, arms, legs, hands and feet, the lawsuit says.
In December of 2020, Nute sued the three jailers — Wrett Tyson, Adam Jackson and Jonathan Brown — as well as nine other county employees accused of witnessing part of the attack and failing to intervene.
The lawsuit was closed on Dec. 21, 2021 after the parties filed a joint stipulation of dismissal.
Lawyers for the defendants declined to comment.
Tyson, Jackson and Brown have since been fired from the sheriff’s office and charged with felonies. Each is scheduled to stand trial separately this winter on charges of assault and criminal use of pepper spray.
Brown, who was 20 at the time of the beating, is being tried as a youthful offender, court records show, meaning he will be treated as a juvenile and his case will be sealed. Anyone younger than 21 at the time of an alleged crime can apply for youthful offender status. Courts can consider numerous factors, such as criminal history, age and seriousness of offense, when granting youthful offender status.
The maximum sentence for a youthful offender is three years.
Tyson, 31, and Jackson, 26, face a maximum sentence of 10 years for each charge.
Attorneys representing the men in their criminal cases declined to comment. All three have pleaded not guilty.
Second lawsuit
Nute in November of this year filed an additional lawsuit against two police officers from Rainsville, Bryant White and Lucas Yarbrough, alleging they unlawfully arrested him.
“At no time prior to his arrest did Mr. Nute create any disturbance or engage in any loud, offensive or boisterous behavior, conduct or activity,” the lawsuit says. “He remained silent and did not speak to, did not threaten, nor interact in any way with defendants White and Yarbrough until after they unlawfully assaulted him in the course of unlawfully and without probable cause arresting him and taking him into custody.”
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in the northern district of Alabama, seeks a jury trial and compensation for damages.
The lawsuit also accuses Officer White of failure to intervene while Nute was attacked at the jail. Video footage showed that White witnessed the three jailers assaulting Nute, according to the lawsuit.
Officer Yarbrough, has since left Rainsville to take a job at the Hollywood Police Department in neighboring Jackson County.
In court filings, both officers denied the allegations of Nute’s lawsuit. Their attorney, H. Edgar Howard, declined to comment.
Nute’s criminal case in Rainsville is still pending. He is charged with three misdemeanors, resisting arrest, public intoxication and third-degree assault. He is accused of assault for pushing an employee of the Rainsville fire and rescue squad.
The case is set for trial in municipal court on April 12.
“He was simply resisting an unlawful arrest,” said Sikes, his lawyer.