A Lowndes County man is planning to sue Lowndes County and the sheriff’s office for $750,000 after he claims he was arrested without a warrant.
Paul Vega has hired Hattiesburg attorney Daniel Waide to represent him. Waide sent county officials a formal notice of claim last month. Mississippi law says such notices against governmental entities must be sent 90 days before initiating a lawsuit.
The notice states that Vega is seeking damages for false arrest, constitutional deprivations and harassment by the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office after Vega tried to report his friend Manuel Vasquez missing.
Vasquez’s wife, Christina Martinez Vasquez, and mother-in-law, Lydia Martinez, were both arrested on July 22 and subsequently charged with Vasquez’s murder. They are scheduled to go before a grand jury in November.
Vega says he reached out to the LCSO on July 14 about Vasquez’s disappearance. When the LCSO did not return any of Vega’s phone calls, Vega went to the FBI which began to investigate the disappearance, according to the notice Vega’s attorney sent to the LCSO. On July 21, human remains — which have since been confirmed to be the remains of Vasquez — were found on Vasquez’s New Hope property. The notice claims the LCSO then arrested Vega.
Vega told The Dispatch that when LCSO officers handcuffed him, they told him he was under arrest for Vasquez’s murder.
The Dispatch was at the scene in late July, not long after the human remains were discovered. Vega was seen being led away in handcuffs. The Dispatch later asked LCSO authorities who the man in handcuffs was, but officials with the sheriff’s department declined to release his name, saying he had not been formally charged.
The notice goes on to say that Vega was arrested without a warrant, probable cause or reasonable suspicion. Vega was held overnight and strip searched, according to the notice.
The LCSO claimed to have a letter written by Lydia Martinez, saying that someone named “Paul” had helped dispose of Vasquez’s body, according to the notice. The notice states that the deputies possessed cell phones at the time that would have proved Vega and Martinez never made phone calls the letter allegedly claimed they had made, and that they continued to hold Vega even after Martinez stated that the letter had been forged.
The notice also states LCSO arrested Vega without a warrant and held him because he is a minority who went to the FBI.
Vega has suffered severe emotional distress and loss of self worth as a result of the LCSO’s actions and that he no longer has faith in the justice system, the notice says.
Vega told The Dispatch he owes the people of Lowndes County the truth, though he also said the LCSO has some good personnel.
“I am convinced if I had not gone to the FBI, my friend would not have been found and those who committed the murder would not have been apprehended,” he said.
County administrator Ralph Billingsley told The Dispatch he received a copy of the notice of claim.
The suit will likely not be filed until December at the earliest. Waide told the Dispatch he plans to wait at least 100 days after sending the notice to make sure the LCSO has received it.
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