The daughters of a man shot and killed during a raid by Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies last fall have filed a federal lawsuit against Monroe County.
Robbie Keeton Geiger, Delisha Keeton Mooney and Megan Archer are suing the county to recover damages for what they claim is the wrongful killing of their father, Ricky Keith Keeton. Their attorney, Jim Waide, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Aberdeen on Monday.
Keeton, 57, died from multiple gunshot wounds during a raid at his home near Smithville on Oct. 28, 2015. Deputies had a search warrant for methamphetamines on Keeton’s property and residence. Deputies reported at the time that Keeton opened the door and began shooting, wounding one deputy, before being killed.
The lawsuit states deputies shot through the doors and walls of Keeton’s mobile home, that Keeton was armed only with a pellet gun and that no deputies were wounded.
The lawsuit also states that Capt. Eric Sloan, head of the sheriff’s office Narcotics Unit, was under investigation after being accused by an investigator with the Mississippi Highway Patrol of taking property from suspects. The lawsuit included a statement by MBI Captain Kenneth Bailey which claimed a suspect in a home invasion case, Stephanie Herring, told him Sloan had made improper advances toward her and tried to extort her into collecting $10,000 in cash from one of the suspects. Herring voluntarily submitted to a polygraph exam which indicated she was being truthful, according to the statement.
In a phone interview with The Dispatch, Bailey confirmed that the statement was his but declined to comment on the case further.
Monroe County Sheriff Cecil Cantrell, in an interview Tuesday, denied both that the shooting of Keeton was a wrongful death and that Sloan was being investigated for stealing.
The sheriff added that Mississippi Bureau of Investigation have investigated Keeton’s shooting and the evidence had been presented to a grand jury, which determined that no charges should be brought against the county.
Calls to MBI from The Dispatch were not returned.
That night
According to the lawsuit, at about 1 a.m. on October 28, deputies surrounded the mobile home where Keeton and his girlfriend were sleeping. Keeton woke up and, believing there was an intruder, armed himself with a pellet pistol and headed toward the entry of the mobile home. Deputies fired about 49 shots, six of which hit Keeton, according to the lawsuit.
Deputies at the time had a no-knock search warrant, according to the lawsuit. Keeton’s daughters argue in the suit that the affidavit for the warrant lacks sufficient detail to show probable cause for any kind of search warrant, much less a no-knock search.
The lawsuit also claims that officers had not yelled for Keeton to open the door and that Keeton had not shot at them.
Cantrell told The Dispatch that Keeton was a drug trafficker in Monroe County with ties to Mexican cartels. He said when deputies arrived at Keeton’s home on October 28, Keeton came out of the residence shooting, and deputies shot back.
Keeton, who had a prior felony conviction for possession of marijuana and did not possess a firearm, was armed with an air pistol. Cantrell said deputies at the time did not realize that’s what it was. The sheriff added that air pistols can kill people and that Keeton did injure two deputies.
After the shooting, deputies removed 10 ounces of methamphetamine from Keeton’s home, Cantrell said.
“Mr. Keeton was a drug dealer,” Cantrell said. “He was bringing drugs to our county, hooked up with the Mexican mafia…he came out shooting and our deputies returned fire.”
Cantrell also denied that Sloan was being investigated at the time for stealing from criminal suspects.
“Basically what that attorney’s trying to do, he’s trying to ruin a good man,” Cantrell said. “What he’s saying about (Sloan) is just not true. He’s trying to make a villain out of somebody, and actually (Sloan’s) a hero.”
The deputies at the time of Keeton’s shooting were not wearing body cameras. Cantrell said that the sheriff’s office had only gotten body cameras one or two days before the shooting and that they had not been set up yet.
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