WAVERLY, Tenn. – A man severely beaten by Humphreys County Sheriff's deputies may soon file a civil rights lawsuit against the law enforcement officers involved.
The incident occurred on January 23 in Waverly as the deputies responded to a report of shots fired.
The deputies did not find evidence that anyone had fired a gun, but while they were talking to Darrin Ring a scuffle ensued.
A deputy's dash camera recorded the incident. In the video, four officers can be seen repeatedly hitting Ring, 34, with their batons, punching him with their fists and kicking him.
During the incident, Ring was stripped naked and tasered by a Waverly police officer while lying in the snow outside of an acquaintance's house.
He suffered multiple fractured ribs, a punctured lung and contusions over his body.
Deputies arrested him for resisting arrest, three counts of aggravated assault on an officer and a parole violation. He remains in jail in lieu of bond.
The Humphreys County District Attorney forwarded the video to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for review. The agency confirms it is investigating if the officers broke any laws during the incident.
The TBI would not provide any other details.
In a statement released Thursday, Humphreys County's Sheriff Chris Davis said, "The video is a two dimensional depiction of the events on January 23, 2011. It was in the dark and large movements of the deputies are seen. We welcome the TBI to investigate the actions and events of that night. We feel our deputies will be shown to have conducted themselves as trained when all the facts come out. This should be resolved through the investigation and subsequently in a court of law if needed. Any further statement at this time would be careless given the nature of the investigation."
Meanwhile, Ring now has an attorney to handle a civil suit against the deputies.
"There was no need to have four officers on him beating him like this," Ring's attorney, David Raybin, told Nashville's News 2. "Certainly whatever reason they felt compelled to use force on him was far and away excessive."
Raybin has a long history of representing people in similar cases. He has defended police officers against allegations of excessive force for the Fraternal Order of Police.
"You can see he is being kicked around like a soccer ball out there naked in the snow," he said.
Ring's public defender filed a motion with a Humphreys County judge to dismiss all the charges pending against Ring.
A judge is set to decide within weeks.
Raybin told Nashville's News 2 he will wait for those charges to be resolved before moving forward with a civil suit.
"He has been in jail since January over this," he said. "For the life of me, I can not see a reason for the beating or his continual confinement over this."
The Humphreys County District Attorney did not respond to Nashville's News 2's request for comment.
Attorney David Raybin said there was no need for officers to beat on his client as they did.
