A Georgia man was arrested and placed in jail after using profane language during a 911 call. Boyd Randall Green was arrested last June for using vulgar language; now a civil rights group has filed a lawsuit saying that Green’s First, Fourth and 14th Amendment rights were violated.
The judge, 87-year old Harold L. Murphy has been on the bench since the Carter administration, and lawyers are asking him to ban the sheriff’s office from ever making such an arrest again. Lawyers with the Southern Center for Human Rights are also asking for a jury trial and a financial settlement.
Green called the emergency number of Whitfield County, Georgia around 3 a.m. and asked to speak to a certain police officer. He apparently blames the officer for his mother’s death a year before. The dispatcher told Green that the officer was not on duty, and Green called the deputy two choice names.
In 2013, Green crashed his car and was arrested for drunk driving. He is a war veteran who also cared for his ailing mother, at the time. That night, he told Dalton police officer, Diner Mondragon that someone needed to look in on his 83-year old mother who was in bad health and would need help with her medicine, food and diapers.
Green claims Mondragon ignored him, although police say they have no video corresponding to the arrest. A few days later, a friend stopped by Green’s house, unaware that he was in jail. The friend found Ada Green dead on the floor.
Using vulgar language during a 911 call became illegal in Georgia as part of a much larger bill dealing with other issues. The sponsor of the bill, former state representative, John Lunsford, says the bill was not designed for a case like Green’s.
Mr. Green suffers from depression; Lunsford said when he sponsored the bill, he didn’t consider that someone with a mental illness could go to jail.