In December 2023, the United States District Court for the Sourthern District of Georgia denied qualified immunity to the defendant officers, ruling that a jury must decide Mrs. Prospero’s claims. Defendants appealed the denial of qualified immunity to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which has yet to issue a decision.
This case arises from a 911 phone call that Mrs. Prospero made on Thanksgiving Day 2018, asking that the Sheriff’s Office stop a barrage of gunshots near her home. In retaliation for Mrs. Prospero’s protected speech seeking assistance from law enforcement, Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Sullivan swore out an arrest warrant affidavit, falsely accusing Mrs. Prospero of calling with the intent to interfere with the 911 telephone service. Mrs. Prospero was later arrested in January 2019 and spent two nights detained in the Camden County Jail under health-harming and degrading conditions. Nine months later the district attorney’s office declined to prosecute and dismissed the charge.
The First Amendment Clinic filed a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of Mrs. Prospero in October 2020, asserting violations of her First and Fourth Amendment rights.
