A couple that was tied up and robbed at gunpoint last year is suing Greenwood police, claiming the department was negligent by not staying with the man who had been arrested and then left at the hospital before he broke into their house.
Ella and Clayton Dixon have filed a lawsuit in Johnson County Circuit Court against the city of Greenwood and Greenwood Police Department seeking damages for emotional distress, pain and suffering, medical expenses and the loss of each other’s companionship, according to the lawsuit filed last week.
Civil lawsuits are the opinion of the person filing them and may be disputed in court. The couple is represented by Franklin attorney David Wilson.
Greenwood police declined to comment, citing policy about pending litigation.
The couple was tied up with duct tape and robbed at gunpoint in their Franklin home last year. Since then, Reese Keith has been convicted of multiple felonies and sentenced to 62 years in prison for the crime.
Keith was arrested after he ran from a crash in Greenwood. After his arrest, he was taken to the hospital three times and on the third trip a doctor at Johnson Memorial Hospital ordered he be kept overnight.
Greenwood police made the decision to release him from custody and pursue a warrant for his arrest, rather than leave an officer to guard Keith for at least overnight, because he hadn’t committed a violent crime and wasn’t believed to be a danger to anyone else. Hours later, Keith left the hospital and broke into the Dixon’s nearby home, tied them up and robbed them.
Shortly after, the police department changed their policy due to the incident.
The previous policy required officers to get permission from a supervisor if they were to leave a suspect at a hospital and choose to arrest them later with a warrant. Officers make a decision based on whether they believe the person is violent and poses a threat to others, Greenwood police officials have said. This is based on the charges the person is being arrested on and other information from their criminal history, if that is available. In this case, Keith had given police a fake name and they had not been able to research his criminal history, which included multiple prior convictions.
Under the new policy, Greenwood police seek permission from a Johnson County judge before leaving a suspect unsupervised at a hospital. An on-call prosecutor and county judge have to approve before police leave a suspect at the hospital, based on whether the suspect is a danger to the community.
In their lawsuit, Ella and Clayton Dixon say Greenwood police were negligent and did not take reasonable care to control Keith by failing to take him to a secure facility, failing to stay with him and not verifying his identity and his criminal history and that he had warrants for his arrest in Marion County, according to the lawsuit.
Since the robbery, Clayton Dixon has moved into an assisted living facility after his dementia worsened, the family has said.
The lawsuit claims the couple suffered emotional distress and pain and suffering, and that Clayton Dixon also suffered physical impairment and disability, and asks for compensation after a jury trial, according to the filing.
