Atlanta attorney sues Alabama city after arrest, alleging ‘crazy’ setup

An Atlanta lawyer is suing an Alabama city after he says several of its police officers set him up to be falsely arrested and jailed on drug trafficking charges in a scenario so bizarre he likened it to a movie plot.

Terry Bailey, who mostly represents hospitality clients in licensing, zoning and other regulatory matters, said he was lured to a strip club in Prichard, Alabama, in November under the impression that a client needed legal help buying the property.

He said he and his driver, Brandon Tatum, were instead met by Prichard police officers intent on searching their rental car, in which they found a bag of illegal drugs including fentanyl and methamphetamine.

Bailey and Tatum, also a Georgia resident, were briefly jailed in Alabama before the charges against them were dropped in early December, 18 days after their arrest, court records show.

They have filed a federal lawsuit in Alabama against the city of Prichard, its former police chief and a handful of other officers, alleging negligence and corruption. Prichard, about five miles northwest of Mobile, has around 19,000 residents, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

The lawsuit comes several months after one of the defendant officers, Emanuel Dotch II, was federally indicted in relation to the incident and other alleged instances of corruption. He was charged in June with extortion, bribery, conspiracy, tampering with evidence and deprivation of rights, court records show.

“Everybody who hears the story keeps saying it feels like a movie,” Bailey told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I literally said those words when I was outside the police car. You couldn’t write anything that would be this crazy.”

A spokesperson for the city did not respond to questions about the lawsuit. The defendants have not yet formally responded to the complaint, filed Sept. 24. They received advance notice of the claims in May, in requirement with Alabama law, case records show.

Dotch pleaded not guilty and is in federal custody awaiting trial. His lawyer did not respond to an inquiry about the prosecution.

Prichard’s police department has been the subject of a separate corruption probe by the Mobile County district attorney’s office, in which several people have been charged, including the former police chief. A special grand jury issued a recommendation that the city’s police force be abolished and rebuilt, the DA’s office announced in July. It said its investigation was initiated after Dotch’s arrest by federal authorities.

The allegations in the lawsuit are backed up by an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Evan Fischer that is attached to Dotch’s indictment. Fischer said he reviewed evidence in the criminal case, including the phone records of Dotch and a known Alabama drug dealer that Dotch was closely connected to, as well as video footage from the body-worn cameras of several Prichard police officers and a Flock surveillance camera in Atlanta.

Fischer said the evidence shows Dotch was communicating with the arresting officers as well as the drug dealer during the incident, to “manufacture probable cause for an illegal search” of Bailey and Tatum’s rental car.

His affidavit and the indictment against Dotch form the basis of the allegations in the lawsuit.

Bailey and his attorneys said they believe the November arrest was arranged by Dotch in conjunction with the drug dealer in Alabama and someone involved in a court case that Bailey is connected to. They cited the phone records obtained by the FBI. They told the AJC they’re unable to share certain details about that because it’s still being investigated by federal authorities.

Bailey said the person who hired him a year ago for assistance buying the Lotus Gentlemen’s Club in Prichard asked if he could pick up an acquaintance in Atlanta on the way to their meeting at the Alabama property on Nov. 15. The client and the acquaintance are not identified in the lawsuit.

Bailey and Tatum alleged the acquaintance stashed the drugs in the back seat area of the rental car during the hourslong drive before being dropped off at a home near the club. They said they then parked outside the club around 6 p.m., expecting to meet the client. Instead, they were surrounded by Prichard police officers who wanted to search the vehicle.

According to the complaint, the officers falsely claimed the car was improperly parked, did not get consent to search it, tried unsuccessfully to call a K-9 to the scene and ultimately stated that they smelled marijuana before ordering Bailey and Tatum out of the vehicle.

Dotch was not one of the officers at the scene, records show. He is accused of orchestrating the setup and instructing the other officers to search the rental car. Dotch’s phone records and other information gathered by the FBI show he was involved, Fischer said.

He said the Mobile DA’s office dropped the charges against Bailey and Tatum “because of an apparent civil rights violation.”

A spokesperson for the DA’s office did not respond Friday to an inquiry about the case. Court records show the charges against Bailey and Tatum were dismissed Dec. 3 at prosecutors’ request.

In his affidavit, Fischer said one of the arresting officers, not named in the document, pleaded guilty in May to charges related to the illegal search of the rental car. He said the drugs found in the car included 19 grams of fentanyl, 124 grams of methamphetamine, 11 grams of oxycodone pills and six amphetamine pills.

Bailey, 41, told the AJC he’s been afraid for his safety and that of his wife and their six children since he was arrested. He said the ordeal, in which he and Tatum faced life in prison if convicted, has been emotionally exhausting for them and their families.