DUBLIN, Ga. — Editor's Note: The video in this story is from 2019 when we covered the five-year anniversary of the shooting.
A former Laurens County investigator wants the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out a lawsuit against him resulting from a 2014 fatal shooting.
Lawyers for Chris Brewer asked a federal judge to put the lawsuit on hold until the nation's highest court decides whether to hear the matter last month.
In September 2014, David Hooks was shot and killed by officers during a drug raid in his East Dublin home. They found no drugs in the house.
Hooks' widow, Teresa Hooks, sued Brewer, former sheriff Bill Harrell and a third officer, saying the raid was illegal and never should have happened.
In June, a federal appeals court dropped the other two officers from the case, but said the lawsuit against Brewer should go forward.
Teresa Hooks' lawyers argue that Brewer used false information from a known drug user to request the search warrant that led to the raid.
Federal judges' this spring called Brewer's handling of the case "reckless" and said the warrant was based on "bunk."
A 2019 ruling by Dublin-based federal judge H. Dudley Bowen raised many questions about Brewer's credibility.
Defense lawyers argue that Brewer should be protected by qualified immunity -- essentially meaning he acted in good faith and had probable cause.
But Bowen and the appeals court rejected that.
Brewer's lawyers told Bowen last month they want the U.S. Supreme Court to review the June ruling.
They said they expected to file a formal request, known as a "writ of certiorari," with the high court by Nov. 30.
According to one federal court website, they're facing long odds: The Supreme Court agrees to hear just 1-2% of the 7,000-plus certiorari requests filed each year.
Typically, they agree to hear cases of national significance or to resolve conflicts among lower courts that have issued different rulings.
In a motion filed with Bowen, Brewer's lawyers wrote that there's a "strong possibility" that the Supreme Court will take the case. They say other federal courts have made conflicting rulings on investigators' responsibility in passing on information from drug informants.
No trial date has been set on the Hooks lawsuit in U.S. District Court, Dublin.
13WMAZ reached out to Brewer's lawyers to ask if they've filed with the Supreme Court; they've not responded.
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