Former Pascagoula police dispatcher sues former Jackson County sheriff, county, others

Dec. 17--GULFPORT -- A Pascagoula man, accused of child pornography possession but never formally charged, has filed a federal lawsuit against former Sheriff Mike Byrd and others alleging he was the victim of malicious prosecution, defamation and other crimes.

The lawsuit is one of nine currently pending in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Mississippi. A total of $906 million in damages are being sought in the cases, though that figure does not include the unspecified amount of punitive and compensatory damages sought

in some of the cases.

The cases all raise questions, according to an attorney representing six of the plaintiffs, about the legitimacy of child pornography investigations in which suspects were never formally charged.

A Pascagoula police dispatcher at the time of his arrest on March 4, 2011, Layne Brushaber, lost his job at the Pascagoula Police Department as a result of his arrest.

The suit alleges Byrd, with the aid of then cyber-crime investigators Hope Thornton-Manning and Linda Jones, targeted Brushaber, possibly in an effort to get back at his father, the owner of Bob's Garage. Brushaber's father had a long-standing agreement with Byrd to tow seized vehicles for free and Byrd in return would notify Bob's Garage when other vehicles needed to be towed so he could get paid for it.

Brushaber's father, the suit alleges, had also allowed all sheriff's candidates in Jackson County to put campaign materials in his office, but Byrd approached him and wanted to put his campaign sign out in the front of the business. Brushaber's father refused to do so, the suit says.

The suit says there was a subsequent "rift" between Byrd and Brushaber's father because he would not agree to publicly endorse Byrd for sheriff in his upcoming election. Brushaber's father, as a result, was the actual target in the case.

In March, the suit says, deputies Jones and Thornton-Manning along with others went to Brushaber's home to check out his laptop computer for child pornography and after a fast scan of the computer, the deputies said they had found evidence of child pornography downloaded on the computer. The detectives, however, would not allow Brushaber to see what they were talking about.

Jones, the suit says, then asked Brushaber if it was his father instead him who had downloaded the child pornography. When Brushaber said his father had not downloaded child pornography, the suit says, Thornton-Manning told Brushaber that they "thought they were coming to arrest" his father that day.

Brushaber, the suit says, also pointed out to sheriff's deputies that he had received the computer that allegedly contained pornography from a roommate, who worked as a sheriff's deputy, and that he and others had access to the computer. In addition, Brushaber told detectives he had an open wireless connection, meaning others could download images on a computer without Brushaber knowing it.

Attorney Adam Miller, who is representing Brushaber, pointed out that now that Byrd has two felony convictions -- on a federal charge of knowingly engaging in misleading conduct and a state charge of intimidating a witness -- the information should certainly help in Brushaber's lawsuit as well as others pending in federal court. Miller is representing six individuals in suits against the former sheriff, the county, investigators and the county's insurance carrier.

"I think the type of conduct and the actions by the sheriff and the sheriff's department that were acknowledged in the federal and state pleas are similar to the allegations in the civil complaints," Miller said. Such allegations that Byrd admitted to include civil rights violations, moves to destroy computer evidence against him and other allegations similar to those outlined in the various federal lawsuits.

In Brushaber's case, he has maintained since the beginning that he had never downloaded any child pornography.

His arrest, he said, essentially cost him.

Prior to his arrest, he said his life was "good."

"I had a steady relationship," he said. "I had friends. My arrest eventually caused the downfall of all my relationships. I lost 95 percent of my friends.

"It's hard to get back on your feet, especially when you know you are innocent the whole time. Even when people believe you, nobody wants to be associated with you because it's such a heinous crime. Once your name is put out there, it's hard to get past that. I still recognize people that know my name and know my face and they shy away from me because of the reputation that I have now. I lost everything."

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