HOUSTON COUNTY, Ala. (WDHN) — James Coachman, who is the current Cottonwood mayor was granted immunity and had his case dismissed in a Houston County courtroom.
“Mr. Coachman was very relieved,” one of Coachman’s attorneys, Benjamin Freeman said. “Obviously, this is a stressful event for anyone to have to go through. It’s a tragic situation, it’s a family situation.”
Coachman was facing a second-degree assault charge from an incident involving his son, where the son went up to Coachman with post hole diggers and Coachman shot his son in the knee.
Coachman’s lawyers walked into the hearing confident in their case and confident that the court would make the right decision.
“The court really didn’t have much leeway to make the ruling any other way because the evidence was overwhelming,” Freeman said.
In the case at the Houston County Courthouse, the defense used the Alabama Stand-Your-Ground Law, which states, “A person is justified in using physical force upon another person in order to defend himself from what he reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of unlawful physical force by that person.”
“The evidence was overwhelming and consistent with our client’s account of the events,” Freeman said. “Showing that he was acting in self-defense.”
The case was dismissed with prejudice, which means the case cannot come back into the courtroom. Which lift’s a weight not only off Coachman’s shoulders, but also the lawyer’s.
“It’s always difficult to represent a client who you know is either not guilty or who you know is legally justified in their actions,” Freeman said.
Freeman says Coachman being a mayor of Cottonwood didn’t change the way they approached this case and that their duty was to seek justice.