DECATUR, Ala. (WHNT) — Nearly two months after Stephen Perkins wife, Catrela, filed an amended complaint against the City of Decatur and four former Decatur police officers, all those parties have filed new replies asking for dismissal of the wrongful death lawsuit.
The updated lawsuit, filed in February, expanded on allegations against the city of Decatur, its police officers, and the tow company repossessing Stephen Perkins’s truck the night he was killed.
Perkins was killed in September 2023 following a botched repossession effort, and former Decatur officer Mac Marquette is charged with murder in Perkins’s death.
The lawsuit filed by the Perkins family alleges excessive force, wrongful death, and unconstitutional policing practices by the City of Decatur and its officers. Along with Marquette, the other officers named in the lawsuit are Christopher Mukadam, Joey Williams and Sergeant Vance Summers.
Marquette’s attorneys are arguing the Perkins’s lawsuit has made no claims that defeat their claims of state agent immunity and peace officer immunity. Additionally, they noted that the court previously granted their motion regarding claims Marquette acted willfully and said the plaintiffs have added no additional facts that would defeat that claim now.
In their response asking for dismissal of the lawsuit, attorneys for the City of Decatur said that the Perkins family can not avoid the lawsuit being dismissed just because they are looking to conduct discovery. It also claimed that the lawsuit fails to add to previously dismissed claims that say city policy was “deliberately indifferent to Mr. Perkins’s right against excessive force and that policy caused Marquette to shoot Perkins.”
The reply from the other three officers said those non-shooting officers are protected by immunity and add that the defendants have still failed to state a claim with enough facts for relief to be granted.
Attorneys for the Perkins family said Decatur police officers concealed themselves near the home before opening fire, with little time for Perkins to comply with orders. New claims also focus on the City of Decatur’s policing policies, which the lawsuit argues encouraged aggressive tactics over de-escalation.
The newly amended complaint focuses on what it calls the city of Decatur’s “stats” system, alleging the system encouraged officers to use excessive force. And that night — the Perkins estate alleges the Decatur officers actively chose to involve themselves to get higher stats and potential rewards and promotions.
The filing claims the officers involved did not review the repossession documents the night of Perkins’s death. It states that if the officers had they would have known the repossession was unlawful.
The document also claims none of the other three officers stepped in to de-escalate the situation once Marquette drew his gun the night of Perkins’s death.
According to the lawsuit, Perkins confronted a repossession agent attempting to take his truck without legal authority. Police arrived soon after, and within seconds of giving verbal commands, Marquette opened fire – shooting and killing Perkins.
Body camera footage was not publicly released, but attorneys for the Perkins family argue he was never a threat and that police escalated the situation unnecessarily. Marquette was later charged with murder for the shooting, marking a rare prosecution of a police officer in Alabama.
On the criminal side of the proceedings, Morgan County Judge Charles Elliott recently ruled that Marquette did not act in self-defense when shooting Perkins and the murder case will go to trial. That trial is currently set for June 9.
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