A fender-bender with a Jacksonville police car has sparked a lawsuit claiming the sergeant behind the wheel caused the wreck to frighten a woman who was having an inheritance dispute with the sergeant’s wife.
The suit argues that Sgt. Roderic Feacher “abused his authority as a law enforcement officer by crashing into plaintiffs’ vehicle with the intent of intimidating” one of the two women inside the SUV.
Phyllis Henson, who sued Feacher in federal court this month along with her neighbor, had a will granting her the estate of Feacher’s late brother-in-law, firefighter George Freeland IV, who had died four days before the Dec. 31 crash.
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Henson filed the will, which described her as the dead man’s spouse, at the Duval County Courthouse on Jan. 2.
Since then, Henson and the sergeant’s wife, Terona Feacher, have feuded in Jacksonville’s probate court over what should happen to the estate, which is basically the house and Freeland’s firefighter retirement fund.
Terona Feacher, who was Freeland’s sister, has also been part of a separate court fight against Henson to invalidate a 2018 deed that made Freeland the owner of the Northside house where he and his sister grew up.
The sergeant drove his squad car in front of an SUV driven by Henson’s neighbor, Elizabeth Molina, moments after Henson exchanged words about the will with Feacher’s son outside the disputed home in the Lincoln Estates neighborhood.
What the lawsuit hinges on is why the crash happened.
But Feacher’s lawyer, Paul Daragjati, said the sergeant acted because he had been told Henson had just threatened to shoot his son, and he said Feacher had radioed for other officers before stopping the SUV from leaving.
The federal lawsuit “is full of incorrect facts and it leaves gaping holes of information,” Daragjati argued, saying the complaint talks about the crash “as if Feacher just dropped out of the sky and decided to abuse this woman.”
The suit argues Feacher committed battery by causing the crash and says that doing so as a police officer constituted a violation of both women’s civil rights protections from unreasonable search and seizure. The suit is filed against Feacher as well as Sheriff Mike Williams, who it argues was responsible for Feacher’s actions, making the city financially liable.
Daragjati said his client thought a crime might have just happened and that it was important to keep the people involved from leaving.
During a police internal affairs review in March, Feacher’s son, Michael Freeland, said he had been cleaning up the house when he noticed the SUV outside with Henson in it.
“Henson came running toward the house flashing a will and stated that the house belongs to her now,” said a Sheriff’s Office summation of his remarks. “During her conversation she told Freeland that she should shoot him for being in the house. Freeland feared that Henson may shoot him so he immediately notified his dad, Sgt. Feacher, of her threat.”
The summation said that Feacher reached the house while the SUV was driving away and that he followed it onto Richardson Road with his car’s emergency lights on.
Feacher, a Sheriff’s Office employee for almost 25 years, told police the SUV’s driver traveled at a normal speed until she stopped at a stop sign and Feacher got out of his car, then she started driving again.
“Feacher stated he got back into his vehicle and drove around the car and blocked the lane of travel in an attempt to get the driver to stop,” the summation said. “Instead, the driver ... crashed the left front of her vehicle into the passenger side of Feacher’s patrol car.”
Feacher “felt it was important to stop the vehicle because he believed that Henson may have committed an aggravated assault against his son,” the summation said.
But the review criticized Feacher’s actions, saying he failed to meet agency work standards by causing a crash — Daragjati argued the vehicles were traveling slowly and that Molina could have avoided the collision — as well as by moving the SUV after the crash without Molina’s permission.
No criminal charges or traffic citations were issued after the crash.
The review also faulted Feacher for not turning on his body camera, which the sergeant said he had forgotten in the heat of the moment.
There was damage to the two women who are suing, too, said Bonderud, noting that both have been treated by doctors for back injuries since the crash. He said Molina, who had simply given her neighbor a lift, was “traumatized” enough that she phoned the lawyer from the crash scene New Year’s Eve, worried because she speaks mostly Spanish and didn’t feel she could communicate with the officers.
A police crash report estimated vehicle damage at $1,000 for Feacher’s 2018 Ford patrol car and $200 for Molina’s 2002 GMC Envoy.
Steve Patterson: (904) 359-4263
