Posted on 09/20/2007 4:29:27 PM PDT by decimon
BARROW COUNTY, Ga. -- A Barrow County woman says an off-duty deputy handcuffed and had her strip-searched because of a simple dispute over a power line.
“My life has never been the same since. I’m having a very hard time with it,” said Sue Worley.
A farm in Hoschton in Barrow County has been home to 60-year-old Worley all her life.
Late last year, a letter from the Georgia Transmission Corporation told her a 230 Kilovolt power line was going to go through her property. When surveyors showed up, Worley said she went down the road to talk. She said she didn’t threaten anyone, but the Barrow County deputy working with the surveyors didn’t see it that way -- the deputy called for backup.
“I saw two sheriff’s cars drive up,” said Worley. She was handcuffed, arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.
“I was in the car and I went all the way to the jail handcuffed,” she said. Worley was booked into the jail, patted down and strip searched.
“She sprayed me down with lice spray. It was so humiliating,” Worley said. “They made a criminal out of me.”
The charges were dropped, but Worley and her lawyer are suing the Georgia Transmission Company.
“It’s just pure, old-fashioned intimidation. They want people’s land and they don’t want to pay for it,” said Worley's lawyer, Don Evans. “They’re going to set their power poles wherever they want and if anybody gives them any lip, they’ll put you in jail.”
She and her lawyer said they’re suing, not just for her, but for other Georgians facing the threat of eminent domain and what they see as loss of property rights.
“I just don’t see how this could happen in a land of freedom, but we don’t have freedom anymore because people can just do anything they want to,” said Worley.
Project H.O.P.E. -- Homeowners Opposing Power Line Encroachment -- said Worley's case shows the need for the governor and legislature to draw stronger citizen-friendly laws to prevent what it calls, "preferential treatment," for power companies.
A spokesperson for the Georgia Transmission Corporation told Channel 2 they had hired a deputy because they'd had some subtle threats from other residents in the area.
Right now, it looks like the power line will go up either late next year or in early 2009.
I would tend to think she may have tried to put them off the property, but who knows.
If someone came on my farm and was acting as if they owned the place, I wouldn’t be one damn bit happy about it.
Are those hash marks on his sleeve, or the grosses of donuts consumed while on duty?
I believe that in some instances eminent domain is valid also. And for all I know this is one of them. When folks start showing up on your property, it gets rather personal.
Sounds like a waste of time, energy and the tax payers money. I don’t know all the facts but this looks stupid. There are usually better ways to resolve these issues then arresting old ladies. I bet if the deputy bought her a cup of coffee, sat down and talked to her like she was his mother no one would have been arrested.
Now, the charge of “disorderly conduct” - on your own property - is absolutely bogus, and that should cost the deputy and the sheriff their jobs.
Maybe I don’t understand you but those two statements seem to contradict each other.
In the first you say that the Sheriff’s department is not to blame and in the second you say that they should lose their jobs.
I believe they receive one stripe for each 20 lbs. they gain after joining "the force."
Oh I think that’s loosely worded, but the point is well taken. Electricity does affect a lot more than most of us stop and think about on a regular basis.
That's the way law enforcement worked when the cops were almost all WWII and Korea vets. The new generation of law enforcement "operators" prefer no-knock raids, kevlar helmets and armored vehicles. This lady should write a thank you note to the sheriff for not being tased. Since no dog was shot in the confrontation, I'm assuming she didn't have one.
Cops don’t make the laws.
I think we’ve gotten a bit off topic. The topic is
"Cheese it everyone" The thread Police is here ;-)
“I bet if the deputy bought her a cup of coffee, sat down and talked to her like she was his mother no one would have been arrested.”
And the problem would have been resolved without lawyers, a win win.
I’m surprised they didn’t call out the SWAT team to tackle this dangerous criminal.
Seriously,snacking to relieve boredom of sedentary jobs is a real problem,whether your spend 8 hours in a soft seat behind a dashboard and a radar gun or the same time in an office chair tethered by the telephone and computer.
The human body was designed to be active a good part of the time and lack of exercise is a downside of many jobs.
True, but in the good old USA, the power company is required to buy right of way before it trespasses. The jackbooted cop needs to find a new line of work.
I could survive quite nicely, thank you. Got 4,000 gallons of diesel storage and my own genset that will power the home, well and shop just spiffy.
The reason why rural folks get so hoppin’ mad over these transmission lines is that the power/transmission companies always run these huge eyesores and disturbances through rural areas - to serve urban loads. They do this because the urbanites won’t allow power generation to be sited in their backyards, so the power plants go out in the rural areas, and now you need some way to get the power from the rural power generation point to the urban point of consumption.
The rapid growth in power consumption in Georgia is due mostly to air conditioning. Urbanites in the south want to live and work in artificial environments, and it takes great gobs of power to produce that artificial environment. I rather think that the urbanites should have to suffer the consequences of their own consumption - power plants literally in their backyards.
Oh — and since I’m guessing as to your next question “Well, wouldn’t you country bumpkins like to be on the grid too?” Well, yea, but here’s the funny think: until you achieve urban population densities, it is rather difficult to get a power utility to put in a substation to serve a very small rural community off a 230kV or 365kV transmission line. There are ranches here in Nevada that are off the grid that have a 230kV line running right through the middle of the ranch. Will the power company deliver service to ameliorate the destruction of property value from the transmission line running smack across the middle of the fields and pastures?
Heck no.
That is plumb silly, the question is what legal right did the dumb cop have on her property.
Power line have to be ran in order to support human life as we know it.
...and with an attitude like that toward law enforcement, she will never get to heaven to be with JESUS!!
She should have been shot on the spot and her head impaled on stake as a warning to others!!!
Good job defending the strip seaching of Grandma.
Good job.
Sorry, wasn’t clear enough.
There’s two things she can sue for. The article makes it sound as tho she’s going after GTC for monetary damages.
That is who should be sued for the money side of this. There’s no point in asking the sheriff’s department for money. You’re not going to get a monetary award from a civil servant that will punish the civil servant and make them quit doing this. All government sovereigns have insurance policies and bonds for events like this, and suing the sheriff for money won’t make a bit of difference to him. he gets to keep his job and he isn’t out of pocket so much as a dime.
Now, going after the sheriff for abusing her civil rights - and getting a conviction - that’s gonna cost the sheriff and the deputy their jobs. But the article makes it sound as tho they’re not doing this (yet). They’re going after money, and what I’m saying (poorly) is that GTC is the place to get the money for damages, etc.
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