Man lost 2 decades of life in prison due to GA cops faking evidence, suit says
When Watkins' murder conviction was thrown out by a September 2023 court order that affirmed his innocence, he 'had lived more than half his life in prison for a crime he did not commit,' his lawsuit filed May 30 says.
His exoneration was secured after Watkins, his parents and the Georgia Innocence Project fought to overturn his conviction for years.
Though Watkins had first been ruled out as a suspect in the killing of 20-year-old Isaac Dawkins, who was shot in the head while driving on a highway in Rome in 2000, he was pursued by Floyd County police and investigators with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, according to his complaint. Rome is about a 70-mile drive northwest from Atlanta.
Officers from both agencies collaborated to hide evidence that would've shown Watkins was innocent and gave false testimonies at trial, the filing says.
The complaint includes Watkins' post-conviction statement to the court on July 1, 2001, when he declared: 'I am not a murderer. … I will be back in court because I am not guilty of this.'
'They can send me to prison, but I just want the family to know that justice has not been done,' Watkins said. 'I had nothing to do with this, and I will say it till the day I die.'
Now living freely in Floyd County, Watkins is suing over his wrongful imprisonment on five federal causes of action, including 14th Amendment violations. His lawsuit names Floyd County, three county police officers, the estate of a fourth officer who died in 2023, and two GBI employees, a special agent and a forensic analyst.
The county and its police chief, Mark Wallace, didn't return McClatchy News' requests for comment June 5.
GBI's public affairs director, Nelly Miles, declined McClatchy News' request for comment because of the pending litigation.
Watkins is represented by attorneys with Pfeiffer Rudolf, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based law firm that specializes in wrongful conviction cases, and attorney Henry C. Debardeleben, of Weinberg, Wheeler, Hudgins, Gunn & Dial LLC in Atlanta.
Attorney Sonya Pfeiffer, of Pfeiffer Rudolf, said in a statement to McClatchy News that 'since his release, and as recently as the past two months, Joey Watkins has been publicly and unjustly attacked despite his innocence.'
'The citizens of Floyd County, including the family of Isaac Dawkins, deserve to know the truth,' Pfeiffer said, adding that they intend to prove all facts made by the complaint.
Watkins' constitutional claims against the defendants include:
Concealment of exculpatory evidence Knowing and/or reckless use of false evidenceUnreasonable seizure and malicious prosecutionA municipal liability claimClaim for suppression of exculpatory evidence and deprivation of effective access to courts in violation of the First and Fourteenth amendments
'Worst prisons in Georgia'
After Watkins' conviction, he sought a hearing to argue his innocence, but Floyd County police and GBI investigators continued to hide the truth, preventing his claim from being heard, the complaint says.
He was then sentenced to life in prison, according to the complaint.
Watkins, who was 20 years old at sentencing, told The Associated Press in September 2023 after his exoneration that he 'cried like a baby … just knowing that it was finally finished, finally over.'
The efforts to hold Watkins responsible in Dawkins' killing, despite data from his cellphone that showed he wasn't in the area, led to his incarceration 'at some of the worst prisons in Georgia,' the complaint says.
A group of inmates trying to steal from him broke Watkins' nose and front tooth in 2002 at Phillips State Prison 'when he resisted,' according to the filing.
Throughout his incarceration, he faced further violence from inmates, resulting in a 'severe hernia in late 2005,' the complaint says.
The medical care available in prison was lacking, according to the filing, which says Watkins 'had to live with the excruciating pain and persistent discomfort from that hernia until he was finally allowed to have surgery in 2016.'
Watkins' wrongful imprisonment ended when he was released on bond in January 2023, before the case against him was dismissed months later,, according to the complaint.
'By the time he was set free, Watkins's parents were shells of their former selves,' the complaint says. 'Both were and remain in declining health and are broken financially after years of championing their son's cause and paying tens of thousands of dollars in attorneys' fees in efforts to prove their son's innocence and wrongful conviction.'
Watkins demands a jury trial and seeks an unspecified amount in compensatory and punitive damages.
He's asking the court for punitive damages that will 'deter such conduct by Defendants and other officials and law enforcement officers in the future,' the complaint says.
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