Patten said Guido’s helicopter pilot duties are volunteer.

“It would cost me an arm and a leg to pay a guy to do what he does for us for free,” Patten said. “… He hasn’t done anything law enforcement wise (since the Feb. 1 incident). We are waiting on the rest of this to come up to finish on out to protect both sides, but I made it pretty clear I wasn’t happy with it (the incident), and I voiced my opinion of it with the victim and I apologized to him for what had happened and I took action as a supervisor as well. On the same token I expressed those same things with Stephen as well. He has really dedicated himself to serving his sheriff’s office but in this case the actions… it just wasn’t called for on the circumstances that were set up.”

History

McCoy, who is also an alderman for the Town of Vidalia, originally filed the lawsuit in Mississippi state court in April and Patten was not a named defendant in that case.

After Guido filed statements in discovery for that case, new information came to light, that prompted McCoy’s attorney Matthew Eichelberger of Jackson to file the case in federal court as well and to name Patten and other defendants in the case.

Eichelberger said once he received Guido’s written discovery responses in June to the original lawsuit filed in April, he had no choice but to bring Patten into the case since Guido said he was acting under the direction of Patten.

“I tried not to sue him (Patten) the first time, but his keeping Guido on the force and Guido saying the sheriff told him to do it, I can’t do anything otherwise than to sue the sheriff,” Eichelberger said. “If he is instructing the guy to go pull the gun then I’ve got to do that. Otherwise what happens is we go to try the case in state court and Guido says, ‘Well the sheriff told me to do it,’ and I don’t have the sheriff there to defend it in case the jury believes it.”

Eichelberger said he plans to file a stay on the state lawsuit and keep the case in federal court, which is where such civil rights cases must be heard.

“I can’t sue the sheriff in state court, not for civil rights violations, which is what the sheriff would have done by directing it to happen,” Eichelberger said. “So I guess technically I could have but they would just remove it to federal court. There was not much of a way for me to go forward in state court with those charges.”