A lawsuit filed by Melissa and Donald Covington against Boone County Deputies Wesley Mackey and Tyler Brockman has been settled for $99,000.
The Covingtons alleged they were falsely arrested on their front porch and during the arrest excessive force was used.
Deputies Mackey and Brockman came to the Covington residence to serve arrest warrants on their son. When Ms. Covington asked what the warrants were for, the deputies did not have copies and told her the wrong underlying charges. They had not even looked at the warrants.
When Ms. Covington requested more information, deputies Mackey and Brockman responded by arresting her for disorderly conduct. When Mr. Covington questioned why they were arresting his wife, they arrested him for disorderly conduct as well. Mr. and Ms. Covington then spent the night in jail.
During the litigation of this case, the Boone County Sheriff made several changes that will hopefully make incidents like this less likely from happening in the future.
Boone County deputies are now required to actually view warrants before they serve them and bring hard copies to the residences where they serve warrants. Deputies have also received additional training on probable cause, disorderly conduct, and de-escalation.
The Covingtons were represented by Adam Gerhardstein, Al Gerhardstein, and Ryan Reed.
Adam Gerhardstein said, “If Deputies Brockman and Mackey had taken a few moments to review the arrest warrants they were serving, this incident would have been avoided. Hopefully, Boone County requiring its deputies to review the warrants they serve will prevent anything like this from happening again.”
This is the second lawsuit recently settled involving Deputy Tyler Brockman. In 2016, Boone County settled a lawsuit brought by Samantha Ramsey’s family after she was shot and killed by Deputy Brockman in 2014.
Gerhardstein and Branch Co. LPA
