Deputy Asks to Hold Suit as FBI Investigates 2018 Beating of TN Rapper

February 23, 2022

According to the Chattanooga Free Press, Hamilton County sheriff's deputy asks judge to put civil lawsuit on hold as FBI investigates 2018 beating of Chattanooga rapper, Charles Toney.

Hamilton County sheriff's detective Blake Kilpatrick, who has been under federal investigation since 2018 after a viral video showed him punching and kicking a handcuffed Black man, is asking a federal judge to put a civil lawsuit on hold as the criminal investigation continues.

A bystander filmed part of the Dec. 3, 2018, arrest of Chattanooga rapper Charles Toney Jr. and posted it to social media.  After the video went viral, Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond placed Kilpatrick on desk duty, and District Attorney Neal Pinkston asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate.

Toney's attorneys at the Cochran Firm Mid-South, Howard Manis and Andrew Clark filed a $250,000 federal civil rights lawsuit against Kilpatrick and the county in December 2019, to which Kilpatrick has filed a counter claim seeking the same amount.

In the meantime, Kilpatrick, who earns $53,681 annually, remains on administrative leave with pay, though Toney's attorneyscommunity members, including the NAACP, and elected officials have called for his firing.

Learn more about the case at the Chattanooga Free Press in an article written by Rosana Hughes.

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