Officer responds to lawsuit, denies allegations
KNOXVILLE — An Oneida police officer accused of verbally assaulting a jail inmate has responded to a lawsuit filed against him in federal court, denying wrongdoing.
Officer Jason Pike, of the Oneida Police Department, responded to the civil allegations in a seven-page briefing filed last week in U.S. District Court here. Earlier this summer, Winfield resident Linda Carol Roe lodged the charges against Pike, claiming that he had verbally assaulted her and caused her distress during a confrontation at the Scott County Jail last year.
The allegations stemmed from a June 2007 incident in which Roe allegedly fired a handgun four times inside a Robbins home owned by Officer Pike’s mother. Court records show that Melinda Pike, Roe’s husband, and Pike’s 14-year-old son were present at the home when the incident occurred. Allegedly, Roe fired a .25-cal. handgun four times, and vandalized two vehicles before leaving the scene. She was arrested minutes later by the Scott County Sheriff’s Department, and later pled guilty to aggravated assault and aggravated burglary stemming from the incident.
In her lawsuit, Roe alleged that in the early morning hours the day following her arrest, she was escorted into a room where Officer Pike and two deputies from the Sheriff’s Department were present. She said Officer Pike confronted her, “putting [her] in fear of physical bodily harm or death,” causing her to suffer “embarrassment and humiliation” as well as “emotional and psychological trauma to such an extent that [she] was required to seek and continues to seek medical and psychological care.”
In the court filing last week, an attorney for Officer Pike admits that Pike “told Linda Roe words to the effect that if she ever went near his family again, he would knock her teeth out.” But, it says, Pike “did not touch Linda Roe nor threaten her with immediate physical harm in any way. His statements were to warn her to stay away from his family in the future, which she had attempted to kill by shooting a pistol in his mother’s home with his 14-year-old brother present.”
The lawsuit stated that Pike was in uniform at the time of the confrontation, but that he was off-duty.
The response alleges that Roe cursed Pike as he left the jail facility.
The response argues that Pike did not violate Roe’s constitutional rights, nor did they constitute an assault or battery against her.
“It is averred that [Roe], in fact, caused extreme emotional distress to Jason Pike, Melinda Pike, and [Pike’s brother] when she unlawfully and illegally broke into their home,” The response states. “Jason Pike advising Linda Roe to stay away from his family in the future was appropriate given the unprovoked vicious and potentially lethal attack which Linda Roe committed on Jason Pike’s mother and 14-year-old brother.”
Pike’s attorney, Daniel H. Rader, III, requested that the complaint be dismissed.
Earlier, an attorney representing Oneida Chief of Police Mike Cross and the Oneida Police Department — which were also named as co-defendants in the lawsuit — filed a response arguing that his clients were not responsible for the actions alleged in the complaint.
“It is affirmatively maintained that the acts of Linda Carol Roe caused any difficulties she may have received as a result of her own criminal activities. It is affirmatively denied that Chief Cross or the City of Oneida were the proximate or contributing cause to any of the alleged injuries received by Mrs. Roe,” attorney Robert H. Watson, Jr. argued in the response.
Attorney Arthur F. Knight, III, who is representing the Sheriff’s Department, Sheriff Anthony Lay and Sheriff’s Department employees Kim Bowling, Dave Buttram, Derrick Sexton, Brad Stephens, Glynndara Tucker and Shawna Garrett has not yet filed a response on behalf of his clients.