CHARLESTON – A federal lawsuit regarding the fatal shooting of a Roane County man by a deputy sheriff has been settled.
The estate of Timothy Rhodes settled with the Roane County Commission for $700,000. The law firms of Calwell Luce diTrapano and Goodwin & Goodwin – which represented Rhodes’ estate – announced the settlement December 16. Roane County Deputy M.P. King and Sheriff L. Todd Cole also are named as defendants.
Rhodes was killed February 22, 2019, on his own property by King.
diTrapano
“While nothing will bring Timmy back, we hope that this resolution will provide some level of closure for his family,” former U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin, one of the lawyers representing the Rhodes family, said.
Because the case was one involving a wrongful death, the settlement had to be approved by the court. U.S. District Judge Thomas Johnston approved the settlement this week.
According to court records, King responded to a 911 call alleging Rhodes was spinning his truck tires on a private right of way to his own property.
“We were prepared to show that Deputy King shot Timmy in the head with a shotgun at point-blank range while Timmy was lying on the ground,” Goodwin said, noting the case is similar to another pending case involving King. That case “happened just months after the Rhodes tragedy and while the Rhodes litigation was pending.”
Michael Nichols also was killed on his own property by King on October 22, 2020.
“In both cases, Deputy King did not wear his department-issued body camera, had no search or arrest warrant, and had no probable cause for arrest or detainment,” said Dante diTrapano, another attorney representing Rhodes and Nichols families. “We will prove that Deputy King also shot Michael in the face in a completely defenseless position."
Goodwin and diTrapano said many questions could have been answered if King had used his department-assigned body camera. But, they say, King was permitted back out on patrol, without his camera, and shot yet another unarmed man after failed to use his body camera during the Rhodes shooting.
“We hope that this settlement will finally serve as a wake-up call to the Sheriff and Roane County Commission to reign in King and prevent him from further terrorizing the people of Roane County,” diTrapano said.
King is at the center of five excessive force lawsuits filed against the Roane County Commission, all of which have been heard by Johnston. The attorneys say King also has been the subject of many more citizen complaints of improper behavior that did not result in civil litigation.
“The evidence also shows that Sheriff Cole and the RCC permitted (and in fact, perpetuated) King’s years long rampage of excessive force,” the December 15 response to the defendants’ motions for summary judgment in the Nichols case states. “King was never disciplined and was, in fact, encouraged, ratified, and even congratulated by certain commissioners.
“Sheriff Cole hardly investigated the myriad citizen complaints against King, and even ignored written warnings from the former Sheriff, the Chief of the Spencer Police Department, and the 911 director, all of whom wrote letters in opposition to King. All of that conduct culminated in King’s tragic killing of Timmy Rhodes, which still prompted no action by anyone to address King’s conduct, directly resulting in another shooting death, that of Michael Nichols.
“Indeed, the claims arising out of the death of Michael Nichols represent the apex of the disturbing conduct of all defendants in this case – not just King, but those that purposefully turned a blind eye to his disturbing pattern of misconduct as it unfolded over the course of many years.”
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case numbers 2:19-cv-00626 (Rhodes) and 2:21-cv-00090 (Nichols)