Summary judgment sought in Roe lawsuit
KNOXVILLE — Attorneys for the Town of Oneida and one of its police officers have petitioned a federal court for summary judgment in a lawsuit filed by Winfield resident Linda C. Roe.
In a flurry of filings in U.S. District Court here last week, attorneys representing the Town of Oneida, Oneida Police Department, Chief of Police Mike Cross and police officer Jason Pike made motions for dismissal and for summary judgment in the complaint, which Roe filed in federal court last summer.
In her lawsuit, Roe claimed that Pike threatened her during a visit to the Scott County Jail while she was under arrest for firing several shots from a handgun inside Pike’s mother’s home. She seeks $1 million in damages.
Robert H. Watson, Jr., a Knoxville attorney representing the town, OPD and Chief Cross, filed several motions, including one seeking to have OPD dismissed from the lawsuit, citing federal law and previous court rulings that state divisions of municipal corporations do not have the capacity to sue or be sued.
“The Town of Oneida is the proper party in interest and inasmuch as the Town of Oneida has also been sued by [Roe] in addition to the Oneida Police Department, the Oneida Police Department should therefore be dismissed,” Watson wrote.
In a separate filing, Watson argued that summary judgment should be granted to his clients. In support of his motion, Watson used excerpts of Roe’s deposition, in which she said that Chief Cross had done no wrong, that he was cordial and receptive when she filed a complaint with him after the alleged incident at the jail, and that she did not know why she was suing him.
Meanwhile, Cookeville attorney Daniel H. Rader, representing Officer Pike, filed a motion seeking summary judgment for his client, arguing that his client did not violate Roe’s constitutional rights.
Roe’s attorney, Andrew N. Hall, of Wartburg, has not yet responded to the motions for summary judgment.