Macon judge rules sheriff, others not liable after man was attacked, left with injuries in jail
A lawsuit filed by a man who alleged he was attacked and then “left for dead” at the Bibb County Jail has been dismissed because a judge decided the public officials being sued were entitled to immunity, court records from Friday show.
Joshua Ballard’s lawsuit, which claimed Sheriff David Davis, Major Brad Wolfe, Captain Brannon Grace and Major Eric Woodford were deliberately indifferent to his severe injuries for three days after other people in the jail attacked him, was dismissed on Sept. 26.
The judge presiding over the lawsuit, Marc Treadwell, determined that Davis, Wolfe, Grace and Woodford were entitled to immunity from being prosecuted and dismissed the lawsuit.
What happened?
Ballard was booked into the Bibb County Jail on Nov. 8, 2022, on charges of possessing a controlled substance, possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, criminal trespassing and theft by receiving stolen property, court records show. He was accused of being caught with methamphetamine and a gun.
He was allegedly cutting the fence of a car repair shop after he stole someone’s car keys, according to court documents.
Several months later, on Feb. 6, 2023, he was attacked by two other detainees in the jail who left their unlocked cells, his lawsuit alleged. Ballard’s cell also was unlocked. Ballard was dragged out of his cell and placed underneath the stairs of the cell block’s dayroom, where he was beaten for more than 30 minutes, according to court documents.
Ballard briefly became unconscious until his alleged attackers poured water over him to revive him, the lawsuit says. Once awake, he was beaten further until he became unconscious again.
He was then dragged into a cell, where he slipped in and out of consciousness for three days, according to court records.
Ballard was left in his cell untreated without receiving medical assistance until Feb. 9, 2023, his lawsuit alleged. Deputies were looking for him to transport him to a scheduled court appearance when they found him. He was taken to Atrium Health Navicent hospital to be treated for nearly three weeks, according to court records.
The attack resulted in a loss of his motor skills and his memory. He experienced difficulty walking, seizures, tics, auditory and visual hallucinations and disoriented consciousness, according to his lawsuit.
‘Ballard has made no effort to carry his burden’
Davis, Wolfe, Grace and Woodford were accused of not performing headcounts of the detainees, conducting security inspections and not addressing the conditions of the failing locks, according to court documents.
Davis, Wolfe, Grace and Woodford claimed they were acting within the scope of their discretionary authority and entitled to immunity in their request to dismiss the lawsuit.
Ballard’s attorney, Kenneth Barton III, argued the jail officials have lost their rights to immunity for not enforcing certain policies at the Bibb County Jail, but it wasn’t enough to convince Treadwell.
For Barton to overcome the qualified immunity from the defendants, he needed to have established a constitutional violation as to each defendant and the unconstitutionality of the defendants’ conduct.
But he didn’t advance any “meaningful argument that the defendants, as supervisors, were not acting within the scope of their discretionary authority, and it is clear that they were,” according to Treadwell’s ruling.
“Ballard has made no effort to carry his burden of showing clearly established law, and the defendants are entitled to qualified immunity,” Treadwell said.
