- Police Brutality Watch

A federal lawsuit alleges authorities used excessive force when deputies shot and killed suspected bootlegger James Hulett, 53 and abused his 63-year-old wife by forcing her to crawl on her belly while uttering a racial slur about her. June Hulett, who is white, sued two Morgan County sheriff's deputies and other authorities involved in the June 30, 2002 raid that killed her husband, who was black. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court against deputies George Rutherford and Jim England, nine Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control officers, a Decatur police officer and the ABC Board. A county grand jury did not indict any of the officers involved in the shooting. A deputy gunned down Hulett, 53, at his home in Decatur on June 30, 2002, after raiding it for illegal alcohol sales. Police claimed that Hulett pulled a gun and the officers shot him. The lawsuit states that Hulett was unarmed at the time he was shot. The claim further asserts that the pistol in question was fired after her husband had been shot several times and while he lay dying on the floor. "It was shot in a direction opposite the position of any officer and therefore not at any officer and did not pose an immediate threat to the life of any officer." Witnesses said the officers kept Hulett handcuffed and would not remove the cuffs for paramedics to properly treat him after he had been shot multiple times. Reisz' paramedic report stated that law enforcement officers refused to remove the handcuffs. A forensic report stated that Hulett's body had 13 bullet holes. In addition to Hulett's shooting, the lawsuit states that the officers abused his wife. "They instructed Mrs. Hulett, who was sitting on the porch, to get down on her hands and knees but she was experiencing difficulties due to infirmities caused by her age of 63. One of the officers then called her a 'nigger-lover' and instructed her to get all the way down and to crawl on her belly," the lawsuit states. "As she was crawling toward the steps, one of the officers grabbed her and dragged her down the steps onto the graveled yard. They handcuffed her and placed her near the van." [more] and [more]

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