Ricky Ball’s family has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Columbus and several Columbus Police Department officers.
The suit is filed in the name of Paul N. Royal, an attorney at Memphis-based Crislip, Philip and Royal, as the administrator of the Ball estate. It names former CPD officers Canyon Boykin, Yolanda Young and Garret Mittan, current officer Johnny Branch, former Police Chief Tony Carleton and 10 “John Does” identified only as police officers. The city of Columbus is also named as a defendant.
Memphis attorney Arthur Clarke filed the suit Thursday in U.S. District Court of Northern Mississippi in Aberdeen. It asks for compensatory and punitive damages to be determined by a jury.
Boykin shot and killed Ball on Oct. 16, 2015, after Ball fled a traffic stop in north Columbus. Ball was a passenger in the vehicle stopped. He was shot twice and a 9mm handgun was found near his body.
A Lowndes County grand jury has indicted Boykin for manslaughter in Ball’s shooting death. The city council also fired Boykin shortly after the incident for failing to activate his body camera before or during the incident and for inappropriate social media posts. Boykin also had an unauthorized passenger in patrol car the night of the shooting.
Young and Branch were both at the scene of the shooting but neither have been indicted. The city suspended them both for not activating their body cameras. Young has since left the force.
The suit claims the city is liable because it failed to properly fund CPD and train its officers. It further claims that Carleton, who resigned as chief after the shooting, failed to properly train his officers and correct policy deficiencies which might have prevented the shooting.
The complaint notes Boykin and Branch had violated the city’s body camera policy before the 2015 shooting, referencing a 2014 complaint filed against the city for racial profiling against Don Deloach.
According to that complaint, Boykin arrested Deloach, a black man, at about 3:30 a.m. on June 15, 2014, outside of K-Mart after Deloach questioned why four white police officers approached and started questioning him. Deloach was a manager at K-Mart at the time.
Tupelo attorney Jim Waide — who is now representing Boykin in the criminal proceedings and his wrongful termination suit against the city — filed the complaint with the city of Columbus on DeLoach’s behalf.
The suit filed Thursday says Waide’s complaint alleged Boykin and the other officers racially profiled Deloach.
Reached today, Waide confirmed he filed the complaint, but did not elaborate on the mater.
“All I have to say about that is that I did represent Mr. Deloach in the complaint and the city settled,” Waide said. “Mr. Boykin didn’t even know a complaint had been filed, and the complaint was based solely on the information Mr. Deloach provided.”
More allegations
The Ball suit also questions two narrative reports filed after his shooting death — one of which says Ball pointed a pistol at an officer and was shot. The other says an officer tasered Ball, Ball pointed a pistol at the officer and the officer shot Ball.
“…If Decedent Ball was tasered by Defendant Boykin, Decedent Ball would have been incapacitated and, therefore no further force would have been necessary or authorized to further detain Decedent Ball by the individual defendants,” the complaint says.
It also questions the pistol belonging to Mittan found by Ball’s body, the discovery of which was not reported by CPD until 12 days after the shooting. According to the suit, Mittan was one of the first officers to arrive on the scene after the shooting. The suit says Mittan “must have planted or allowed this weapon to be placed near [Ball’s] body” to justify the shooting.
The gun was reported stolen from Mittan’s home.
Mose Lee Sudduth, a Vernon, Alabama, attorney, said the lawsuit filed Thursday is not related to a possible pending suit he is working on. Sudduth, representing Ball’s father, Ricky Martin, filed an a notice of intent to sue the city in July.
Columbus Public Information Officer Joe Dillon said the city hadn’t reviewed the lawsuit as of Friday morning.
“The city is aware that a lawsuit has been filed,” Dillon said. “As of early (Friday) morning, the city has not seen the paperwork or the details of this lawsuit.”
Clarke could not be reached by press time.
Reporter Slim Smith contributed to this article.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.