LAURENS COUNTY, Ga. — A lawsuit filed by the widow of a Laurens County man killed by deputies in his home is now scheduled for trial in Feb. 2022.
13WMAZ has been covering this case since 2014, when David Hooks was shot during a failed drug raid at his home off Highway 319 on Sept. 24. Officers raided his home around 11 p.m. looking for drugs, but didn't find any.
Weeks later, people protested his shooting outside the Laurens County courthouse, but a grand jury declined to charge the officers involved.
His widow, Teresa Hooks, filed a wrongful death lawsuit. Her lawyers argue that the raid was illegal and based on false information from a known meth addict. Since then, the case has taken many twists and turns.
Sheriff Bill Harrell claimed that DNA evidence linked David Hooks to drugs, but he later admitted that was false during a sworn statement for the lawsuit. A few weeks later, Harrell lost his bid for re-election.
Three years ago, a federal judge refused to throw out the lawsuit. He wrote that Inv. Christopher Brewer may have lied when he applied for the search warrant for Hooks' home.
A federal appeals court agreed, calling Brewer's investigation "reckless." Last year, Brewer asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review that ruling, but they declined.
Judges have dropped former Sheriff Harrell and two others from the lawsuit, but said the case against Brewer can go to trial.
On Monday, Judge Dudley Bowen said jury selection will begin Feb. 28, 2022. The trial will be held at the U.S. District Court in Dublin.