A lawsuit filed against the city by a former Columbus police officer raised significant allegations against Ward 4 Councilman Marty Turner, including that officers often saw him under the influence of alcohol and that he ordered them to stop patrolling Ward 4.
Canyon Boykin filed the suit Monday in federal court for what he claims was wrongful termination when the city council voted to fire him. Boykin, while on patrol, shot and killed Ricky Ball in Columbus on Oct. 16. Boykin claims in his lawsuit that he shot in self-defense. The council, including Turner, fired Boykin at the end of October.
Two claims made in Boykin’s lawsuit involve Turner.
In one, Boykin alleges that he and other members of a special operations group repeatedly saw Turner notably intoxicated.
“Officers requested their superior to allow them to arrest Turner, but the request was refused on the sole grounds that Turner is a City Councilman,” the lawsuit states.
Turner, when contacted by The Dispatch on Tuesday, said the claims did not bother him.
“They can say that I’ve been drinking excessively,” he said. “That’s fine with me, because if drinking was illegal, then they wouldn’t sell it in any stores and none of the bars would be open.”
Boykin’s lawsuit also claims Turner forbade the special operations group from patrolling Ward 4 and that he “did not want the law strictly enforced in his district.”
“Turner is prejudiced against members of the (special operations) unit because he identified with the persons breaking the law who resided in his district,” the lawsuit states. “As a result of Turner’s directions, the (special operations) unit was not allowed to patrol in Turner’s district, resulting in that district’s being particularly crime infested and dangerous to law-abiding citizens.”
Jim Waide, an attorney representing Boykin, told The Dispatch that CPD Interim Chief Fred Shelton told members of the special operations group they could not arrest Turner and that Turner did not want the unit patrolling his ward.
Shelton denied both claims when contacted by The Dispatch on Tuesday.
Shelton noted the special operations group was in Ward 4 the night of the Ball shooting and had previously made arrests in the ward.
Turner dismissed the lawsuit’s claims. He said he took issue with the way officers conducted patrols, but denied that he ever told them to not patrol Ward 4. He later added that he had suggested focusing patrol resources other parts of Columbus such as the Sim Scott area and downtown.
“I told them to leave the people alone,” Turner said. “I told them that you cannot pull people out of their yards. They arrested people in their yards. They call them to the street and they arrested them. This is on video tape.”
Turner said he’s aware of several instances where members of the special operations group reportedly harassed or wrongfully arrested civilians who were on their private property. In at least a few of those cases, Turner said officers attempted to arrest people because “they might have done something.” He said any prejudices he holds against the officers rose as a result of those actions.
He admitted to having “prejudice” against both Yolanda Young and Boykin, but only because of how he saw their actions.
“It’s a prejudice, not racism, because Yolanda is black and Boykin is white,” he said. “When you enforce unlawful deeds against people, I’ve got a problem and a prejudice with it.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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