A Cobb County resident has filed a lawsuit against the police department and others for actions he said violated his civil rights during his arrest on charges of making terroristic threats.
Robert Michael Quill is seeking punitive and actual damages from the Cobb police department, two Cobb County Animal Services officers and his neighbors for allegedly conspiring to arrest and charge him based on fabricated evidence, according to the lawsuit filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Cobb County spokesman Ross Cavitt said Tuesday that the county has not been served with the suit.
Quill, who is representing himself, was charged with one count of misdemeanor terroristic threats and acts on April 27, 2019, following a confrontation with two men in a pickup truck outside his home on Daniell Drive in Smyrna. According to the suit, one of the men threatened to attack Quill. Quill responded by saying he would use his guns to defend himself.
“If I have to shoot you to defend myself, I will,” Quill said, according to the lawsuit. “And if I have to kill you, I will.”
The police were called, and Quill was taken into custody and booked into the Cobb County Adult Detention Center. He was notified in February by the Cobb County Solicitor General’s Office that the charge would be dropped.
Quill told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that his dispute with his neighbors came to a head in April 2018 when one of his dogs was killed by what he described as a “juvenile wolf” they were raising on their property.
According to the suit, the dog was snatched through an area at the bottom of a fence separating the properties. Quill called Cobb animal control officers, but he said they did not press charges against the neighbors. The suit contends that his neighbors kept dangerous animals on their property and were negligent in their handling of those animals.
The suit also contends the officers used excessive force in their arrest, which led to Quill suffering a torn rotator cuff in his left shoulder and aggravating an existing injury in his right shoulder.
About the Author
