Convenience store owner Drupatty "Ann" Jaipersaud was flustered and upset when she called Lawrenceville Police in 2008 about an unruly customer.
She thought the police would help her get the man out of her store. But instead, one of the officers who responded, Detective Tim Ashley, ended up arresting her. She would spend 10 hours in the Gwinnett County lockup before she could post bail.
A jury found Jaipersaud not guilty of the crime. The store owner went on to file a lawsuit, and a U.S. District Court judge ruled in February that Ashley did not have probable cause for the arrest.
Whether Ashley should have to compensate Jaipersaud for overstepping his authority and whether the city of Lawrenceville should also be liable are issues at the heart of a federal civil trial in Atlanta that will continue into its third day Thursday.
Jaipersaud's lawyers, Bill Atkins and Albert Wan, contend that Ashley's quick temper caused him to jump to the wrong conclusion. And, they say, the city should share liability for the wrongful arrest.
Ashley, a 27-year law enforcement veteran who was hired by Lawrenceville in 1997 and still works there, has been disciplined before for violating department rules. Personnel records show Ashley has been suspended three times since 1997 for missing a training class, making a harassing phone call to a friend of his ex-wife and failing to respond to a homicide when he was the on-call investigator.
But Ashley testified on Tuesday that he didn't err in arresting Jaipersaud.
"According to our policy, I didn't," Ashley said when asked if he thought he did anything wrong.
Ashley was one of five officers who responded to the dispute that broke out at Jaipersaud's Chevron convenience store when the store ran out of gas during a fuel shortage on Sept. 24, 2008.
A customer didn't believe Jaipersaud when she said all the pumps were dry except diesel. She told police he was hurling insults at her and refusing to leave. The customer, who was black, told the officers that Jaipersaud had slapped him and made racist remarks.
The officers wanted to see if the in-store surveillance footage had captured the argument.
Jaipersaud's lawsuit contends that Ashley immediately blamed her and grew irritated when she could not retrieve camera footage. Jaipersaud told him that her son was the only person who knew how to operate their security system. However, she handed the officers the instruction manual and offered him access to it.
Ashley demanded that Jaipersaud summon her son. She said she tried calling her son, but he had his phone off while at school.
"He said I need to get him here now or else," Jaipersaud testified. "I asked him if he was threatening me? And he said, 'No, I'm arresting you.'"
Ashley said he arrested Jaipersaud because he thought her behavior was uncooperative and "disrespectful."
Jaipersaud was charged with violating a local disorderly conduct ordinance. A misdemeanor charge of battery was later added by the Solicitor's Office for the alleged slap of the customer. Jaipersaud was subsequently acquitted in a State Court trial.
Jaipersaud is not the only person who claims to have been wrongfully arrested by Ashley.
The attorney for Carlos Orlando Fairley, a 29-year-old cook from Mississippi, sent the city a letter July 17 indicating he intends to sue Ashley and the police department. Such notification letters are required to be sent by Georgia law before a plaintiff can sue a municipality). Fairley's attorney, Mark Bullman, said his client spent three months in jail because Ashley wouldn't listen to him.
In the course of applying for a job, Fairley was notified in November by the Transportation Security Administration that he had outstanding warrants for his arrest in Lawrenceville for two counts of armed robbery.
When Fairley called the Lawrenceville Police Department and tried to tell Ashley that he had not set foot in Georgia in more than nine years, Ashley "loudly and rudely" said he knew Fairley committed the crime and hung up on him, according to Fairley's letter of intent to sue.
The two armed robbery victims had picked Fairley from a photo lineup in September 2011 based upon a 10-year-old picture of him as a teenager, when he was arrested for joyriding with his friends in a stolen vehicle. Based upon their statements, Ashley swore out warrants for Fairley's arrest.
Fairley was jailed in Mississippi on Jan. 19, 2012 and extradited to Gwinnett County.
It was not until almost three months later — after Fairley lost his job as a result of his absence — that the victims were shown a photo lineup on March 17 using a current photo of him.
This time, the victims were unable to identify Fairley and the charges were dropped.
Bullman said the detective should have realized he had the wrong guy much sooner, because the victims' statements said the gunman had a very visible tattoo on his face. Fairley did not.
The victims also said they went to Dacula High School with the suspect, but Fairley had never attended that school, Bullman said.
Cell phone and bank records and numerous witnesses also indicated Fairley was in Mississippi during the robbery if Ashley had bothered to check them, according to Bullman.
"This is the kind of guy you do not want in your department because he is a liability," said Bullman.
Lawrenceville Police Chief Randy Johnson said he would not have hired or retained Ashley if he had misgivings about him. It's not uncommon for police officers to be accused of all sorts of misbehavior, Johnson said, but "what's important is whether those allegations are proven."
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