A Knox County Sheriff’s Office deputy can be sued for tasing and seriously injuring a military veteran in 2022, according to a unanimous opinion by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The decision is highly unusual because law enforcement officers are almost always immune from lawsuits.
Deputy Randall Williams argued his actions were covered by qualified immunity, a legal concept established by the U.S. Supreme Court that gives broad protection to police officers for their actions on the job.
Nearly four years after the confrontation on Cherokee Trail in Knoxville, district and appellate court judges say the suit from Brian Eugene Hux can proceed because the stop violated the law.
Hux’s lawsuit, filed in 2023, says Williams used excessive
force and was negligent because he chased and tased the wrong person. All of the claims against the deputy and the sheriff's office were dismissed except for one: wrongful stop and seizure.
Hux, 68, is seeking $3 million in damages.
“We’re pleased with the Sixth Circuit’s unanimous decision affirming the district court’s judgment," Hux's attorney Lance Baker told Knox News. "We appreciate the thoughtful consideration the courts have given this matter throughout the process.”
A spokesperson for the sheriff's office and Knox County Law Director David Buuck declined to comment on the case because litigation is ongoing.
A case of mistaken identity
On a mid-October afternoon in 2022, Hux was walking in the grass alongside Cherokee Trail near the Quarry Trail apartments when Williams pulled up. He was homeless at the time, struggling after serving years ago in the U.S. Air Force and working through years of physical disabilities.
Hux, the deputy later said, seemed to match an alert sent to police about a man with an arrest warrant who had walked out of the nearby University of Tennessee Medical Center.
The Sixth Circuit questioned Williams’ statement because Hux’s appearance didn’t match the alert for a “tall white male with brown hair.” Hux is 5 feet 9 inches and had purple hair at the time.
Williams pulled over, called to Hux to stop walking and come over to his cruiser. Hux refused. Williams got out of his vehicle and ran toward Hux, who began to run away.
In seconds, the deputy told Hux he would tase him and fired the prongs.
The taser dropped Hux to the ground, slamming his face on the pavement in the driveway entrance of the apartment complex. Hux suffered severe and life-threatening injuries, including an “intracranial hemorrhage and skull base fracture," his medical record shows.
The injuries required Hux to be placed in a residential care facility. He is no longer able to live on his own, he says in the lawsuit.
Williams stood over Hux after he tased him.
"Why are you running from the cops? ... Look at all of this you just caused because you decided to run," he said.
While Hux was hospitalized, the sheriff’s office impounded and sold Hux's “older model” Porsche Cayenne, which he said was valued at $4,000.
Judges disapprove of Deputy Randall Williams' actions
Hux ran, he said in court filings, because of an outstanding warrant he had from Johnson City. But in his 2024 opinion, U.S. District Judge Curtis L. Collier said that didn’t matter. Williams chased Hux because he didn’t come when called, a command Hux was not under any legal obligation to follow.
The chase and tasing were a violation of Hux’s Fourth Amendment rights, Collier said.
The 3-0 Sixth Circuit opinion, written by U.S. District Judge Eric L. Clay of Michigan and issued July 22, was more direct. Williams, Clay said, had no reasonable suspicion to stop Hux.
A "be on the lookout" call described the wanted man as "a 6-foot tall 34-year-old white male with long brown hair," Clay said. "From (Williams') perspective, it was unreasonable to stop (Hux) from this information alone ... (Hux's) relatively advanced age should have immediately disqualified him in the eyes of a reasonable officer."
The bottom line: It was not a legal stop.
“(A)n outstanding warrant does not rob an individual of a liberty interest against the unreasonable seizure of their person,” he said.
Tyler Whetstone is an investigative reporter focused on accountability journalism. Email: tyler.whetstone@knoxnews.com; X: @tyler_whetstone; Signal: twhetstone141924.39
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Judges slam Knox County deputy's 'unreasonable' stop that severely hurt veteran
