ROBERTA, Ga. — A Crawford County health official was not to blame when a sheriff's deputy allegedly ordered a man to decapitate his own dog, a federal judge says.
Judge Tillman Self III dismissed Amy Sims of the county health department from a lawsuit against the Crawford County Sheriff's Office on Friday.
It all stems from a bizarre case in December 2017 when Joe Nathan Goodwin says deputies shot his dog, then ordered him to cut the dog's head off.
Hollis and another deputy came to the home because the dog, Big Boy, bit a neighbor.
Goodwin claims that Deputy Joe Hollis ordered him to remove his dog’s head to test it for rabies -- or go to jail.
He gave 13WMAZ a video that shows an officer, apparently Hollis, telling him, "We're asking you to remove the dog's head and you're refusing, right?"
Goodwin says he refused at first -- but obeyed the officer.
Then, according to the lawsuit, Hollis ordered Goodwin to bring the dog's head to the county health department.
The lawsuit by Goodwin and his partner, Tosha Dacon, is still pending in U.S. District Court in Macon and no trial date has been set.
But Self on Friday granted Sims' motion to be dropped from the lawsuit. He wrote that the couple hasn't presented any evidence that Amy Sims forced Goodwin into cutting off the head.
He wrote that Hollis and the other Crawford deputy, Wesley Neesmith, call Sims at the health department after the dog was shot.
She told them that "the dog's head would have to be removed."
She also advised Goodwin that he "could be liable for the cost of rabies shot if the dog's head was not removed and that the cost of the shot was approximately $20,000."
That's when Hollis, "without basis or cause," ordered Goodwin to cut the pet's head off, Self wrote.
But Sims didn't coerce Goodwin, the judge said; she merely advised him of his options and the potential cost of rabies.
"In other words, she did her job, and that is hardly outrageous," Self write.
The lawsuit names Crawford County, Sheriff Lewis Walker, Hollis and Neesmith as defendants.
The county's response says Hollis never ordered Goodwin to cut the dog's head off and that the deputy restrained Goodwin because he was shouting profanities at the officer.