South Carolina Criminal Defense Blog

After a wrongful arrest caused by neighbors over some turkeys that Robert and Jennifer Klippel removed from their yard, they sued for malicious prosecution,emotional distress, defamation and false arrest. Last week at trial a Beaufort County jury awarded four and a quarter million in damages for what they were put through.

What began as a dispute between neighbors about pet turkeys ended Friday when a Beaufort County jury awarded two Hilton Head Island siblings $4.25 million in damages.

In 2004, defendant Ralph Dupps accused Robert and Jennifer Klippel of taking his turkeys from his Sea Pines home and setting them free. The charges were dismissed, and the Klippels sued Dupps. They claim he accused them falsely and that their wrongful arrest caused public humiliation and emotional distress that drove Robert Klippel to alcohol and Jennifer Klippel to the use of sleep aids and depression medication.

On Friday -- after five days of testimony -- a jury in the 14th Circuit Court of Common Pleas ruled in the Klippels' favor.

The facts underlying the Klippels' lawsuit are a scenario that happens all too often:

Three law enforcement officials told Dupps no crime had occurred, Rosen said. Yet, Dupps proceeded to get arrest warrants for the Klippels from a Hilton Head Island judge and sought out his brother-in-law, a special prosecutor in the 14th Circuit Solicitor's office at the time, to prosecute the case, Rosen said.

Police, judges, and prosecutors have to be wary of persons who attempt to abuse the criminal courts to solve personal disputes or to get revenge on someone. One of the most common scenarios that I see is an arrest for breach of trust - where the "victim" is attempting to use the solicitor's office as a debt collection agency.

The trauma that results from being handcuffed, hauled away, and then locked in a cage for any period of time is extreme. We don't care, or we look the other way, when it is a person we can label as a "criminal," a sub-class of person who is treated like an animal and thrown into a cell. But when it is a person who has committed no crime, and would not have committed any crime, then we pay attention and we notice.