EAST DUBLIN, Ga. — Editor's Note: The video in this story is from 2019 when we aired a five-year retrospective on the case.
The U.S. Supreme Court won't intervene in the lawsuit against a former Laurens County investigator involved in a 2014 fatal shooting.
As usual, the court did not explain the decision, but Brewer's request was a long-shot. According to one federal court website, the Supreme Court agrees to hear just 1-2% of the 7,000-plus "writ of 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.
The court's decision means that Teresa Hooks' lawsuit against Brewer can go to trial in U.S. District Court in Dublin.
She's the widow of David Hooks, who was shot and killed by officers during a drug raid in his East Dublin home.
She sued Brewer, former sheriff Bill Harrell and a third officer, saying the raid was illegal and never should have happened.
Last 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 called Brewer's handling of the case "reckless" and said the warrant was based on "bunk." No drugs were found in the Hooks home.
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.
In November, the Hooks' family attorney, Mitchell Shook, told 13WMAZ, "On behalf of David Hooks, his widow Teresa, and the entire Hooks family we look forward to the day when the delay tactics are dispensed with and a Jury has the opportunity to pass judgement on the heinous conduct of those responsible for the death of a great man. David was a man who loved and was loved by his family and friends. It's been a long road trying to get there but we are determined to get justice for David and we will not stop."
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