TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Nov 7, 2022

The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has denied immunity to former Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputy Daniel Wilkey and current deputy Tyler McRae in a civil rights lawsuit filed by a Soddy Daisy resident, Tennessee Lookout reports. William Eugene Klaver filed the suit after an April 2019 traffic stop in which he was detained on the side of the road for nearly an hour in a fruitless search for marijuana. A three-judge panel of the court said Klaver presented ample evidence that the deputies intentionally dragged out a stop for a window tint violation to illegally search his vehicle. Wilkey and McRae have been named as defendants in at least a half dozen federal civil rights lawsuits alleging abuses of power and brutality in encounters with citizens. Since the interaction with Klaver, Wilkey also has been arrested on rape, assault and official oppression charges.