Georgia couple sue sheriff, wife over gas station arrest

A Georgia couple have brought a federal lawsuit against the sheriff of Clinch County and his wife, a sheriff’s deputy, over an altercation that occurred at a Stockbridge QuikTrip after the sheriff’s wife claimed she was groped inside the gas station.

Darius Rice and Ashley Jackson want at least $11 million in damages from Stephen and April Tinsley, likening their encounter to the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, a Black boy who was abducted in the middle of the night, beaten, tortured and shot in the head before his lifeless body was thrown into a river, discovered three days later. Till had been accused by a white woman of flirting with her inside a grocery store.

Rice, who is Black, was accused by April Tinsley, who is white, of groping her buttocks inside the QuikTrip in April 2022, records show. The accusation prompted Stephen Tinsley to violently arrest Rice and led to a scuffle between April Tinsley and Jackson, according to the civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in the federal trial court in Atlanta.

Harry Daniels, an attorney for Rice and Jackson, said April Tinsley has a documented history of lying. He said her false groping accusation and “crocodile tears” led to Rice being charged with sexual battery. Though the misdemeanor charge was never prosecuted, it meant Rice was unable to keep his job, Daniels said.

“Mr. Rice was a contractor overseas where he was required to have a heightened security clearance,” Daniels told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We’re not going to ignore the elephant in the room. (The incident) has a racial component to it.”

Rice maintains that he accidentally made contact with April Tinsley when she backed away from the coffee counter inside the QuikTrip, and that he immediately apologized for bumping into her. April Tinsley told a sergeant of the Henry County Sheriff’s Office that she felt a hand cupping and dragging across her buttocks, the sergeant stated in an incident report.

Rice’s version of events is corroborated by an officer of the Henry County Police Department, who responded to the altercation, interviewed witnesses and viewed security footage from inside the QuikTrip. In his incident report, the officer stated “in the video, it did not look as if Mr. Darius (Rice) purposely or intentionally grabbed or groped Ms. Tinsley’s buttocks.”

April Tinsley deferred comment Thursday to her attorney, who did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the case. Stephen Tinsley also did not immediately respond to calls about the lawsuit.

In their complaint, Rice and Jackson said Stephen Tinsley “body slammed” Rice into a concrete wall while arresting him at the QuikTrip, causing Rice to temporarily lose consciousness. The couple said April Tinsley grabbed Jackson’s phone and threw it into a vehicle when Jackson started recording Rice’s arrest.

Both Jackson and April Tinsley were handcuffed at the QuikTrip but neither were charged with a crime, according to the lawsuit. In his incident report, the responding Henry County police officer said April Tinsley should have been charged with “robbery by snatching,” but that a superior officer decided not to charge her.

The Henry County Sheriff’s Office took control of the case and charged Rice, records show.

The Tinsleys, who live and work in southeast Georgia, had stopped at the QuikTrip while transporting an inmate, incident reports state. Neither was wearing a uniform, though Stephen Tinsley had his sheriff’s badge and a gun attached to his belt, Daniels said.

Rice and Jackson live in the Stockbridge area, Daniels said. He said Rice, a decorated military veteran, recently managed to find employment after losing his contracting job while the sexual battery charge hung over his head.

The couple delayed the filing of their lawsuit until the two-year deadline for prosecuting the misdemeanor charge had passed, Daniels said.

“There was insufficient evidence to prosecute,” he said.

Daniels said Rice and Jackson unsuccessfully sought to have the Tinsleys arrested and charged with assault. He said a magistrate judge in Henry County would not issue arrest warrants for the Tinsleys, as they are law enforcement officers.

The civil claims against the Tinsleys include excessive force, assault and battery, unlawful seizure, retaliatory arrest, intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation.

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