A lawsuit filed against a former Hanceville police officer
alleging he used excessive force against a 15-year-old girl and caused her to
be bitten by the department’s K-9 police dog will be heard in Cullman County
Circuit Court Tuesday.
Harold Cox, who now works for the Sumiton Police Department,
is accused of pulling the sleeping girl out of bed, dragging her outside the
home on Williams Avenue Northeast in only a T-shirt and panties, slamming her
on the hood of a police car and then putting her in a police vehicle with the
K-9 dog that bit her twice on her arm.
The lawsuit filed in March by the girl’s mother, Aimme Davis
Cooper, on behalf of her daughter accuses Cox of assault and battery, false
imprisonment, excessive use of force and false arrest stemming from the alleged
incident on Sept. 29, 2012.
According to the complaint, Cox went to the home of Johnnie
and Jamie Davis to investigate a reported noise complaint. Attorneys for Cox
and Hanceville allege in court documents that a house party was going on at the
residence, and police arrested several individuals, including minors, that
night. However, Porter said his client, although she was arrested, was never
charged with any crime. Juvenile criminal records are not public.
Cox found Johnnie Davis in the front yard and informed him
of the noise complaint. Davis went inside, closing the door behind him, turned
down music and came back outside to talk with Cox, according to the complaint.
“Officer Harold Cox, then without consent of Mr. or Mrs.
Davis or anyone else at the residence entered through the front door while Mr.
Davis was still in his living room,” the complaint stated. “Officer Harold Cox
was immediately put on notice that his entry was without consent, as Mr. Davis
asked Harold Cox if he had a warrant.
Officer Cox had no warrant. Officer Cox stated he did not need one and still
without consent entered the living room of the home.”
Cox walked to a back bedroom where he found the teen girl,
now 16, another minor and Jamie Davis. According to the complaint, Cox told the
sleeping girl to get out of bed, and when she did not respond, he allegedly
forcibly picked her up, threw her in floor and then on the bed, stuck his knee
in her back while he handcuffed her and took her outside. The complaint states
the girl suffered a head injury in the bedroom and two dog bites on her arm
when she was placed inside a police vehicle with the K-9, rather than the back
of other available patrol vehicles that had arrived on the scene.
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