Elderly Georgetown man files federal lawsuit accusing SWAT officers of using excessive force
An elderly Georgetown man says SWAT officers took him to the ground and broke his hip.
His attorney has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the city and county.
The 82-year-old man lives about five blocks away from the sheriff's office in downtown Georgetown.
He says sheriff's deputies and Georgetown police came to his home in full swat gear in late September to serve a search warrant regarding his nephew who had been staying with him.
Video shot by someone driving by that day shows Herman Crisp sitting in a chair on his lawn with a friend. He says when the officers arrived; they threw a flash-bang device at his home, knocking him out of his chair.
He says officers slammed him to the ground and handcuffed him. He says the force broke his hip. He says officers searched his home and before they left, helped him back inside, but didn't call paramedics. His family members say they found him the next day on the floor in his own feces.
"After they left I tried to get up then because I had to go to the bathroom and I couldn't go so I just crawled over here and laid on the floor right down there and my sister came and called the paramedics and they came in here," Crisp explained.
"The thing that concerns me about this is it looks to me like a conspiracy of silence. Things like this don't happen in a vacuum. There's nothing that we've been able to get that identifies the officers, that identifies the action that occurred. We have our client's information but I had to hire a private investigator just to get enough faxed to determine whether I should file a lawsuit or not. And I'm convinced that the facts are adequate to file this lawsuit and we'll find out now that we have some way to get accurate information," said Crisp's attorney, Boadus Spivey.
Although the injury is concerning, Crisps's attorney says his goal right now is to find out why this happened and who is at fault here.
Crisp has undergone two surgeries, physical therapy and uses a cane to walk.
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We reached out to both the city and county but neither had heard of the lawsuit perhaps because it was filed today so neither could comment.