SEVIERVILLE â A Crossville man is seeking $1 million from the Sevier County Sheriffâs Office, claiming in a federal lawsuit that six deputies beat him unconscious while handcuffed during an arrest last year.
Franklin Dee Copeland Jr., 48, filed the complaint Monday in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Tennessee, on the one-year anniversary of his arrest.
â(Copeland) was wrongfully battered, unlawfully seized and unlawfully detained against his will by the defendants ⦠when those defendants responded to a false report of an attempted robbery,â the complaint said.
It says the deputies âdid intentionally and with malice beat and batter the plaintiff after placing handcuffs and restraints upon the plaintiff, by hitting and punching him, jumping on top of him, slamming him to the ground and kicking the plaintiff.â