Small-town police sued for planting drugs on drivers in north Alabama
Sarah Whites-Koditschek | swhites-koditschek@al.com
Michael Kilgore
Michael Kilgore
After a small-town police officer was indicted this year in a scheme to frame drivers for drug possession in north Alabama, one driver is suing for wrongful arrest, arguing that former Centre officer Michael Kilgore planted drugs in his car and used a police dog from another department to find the contraband.
“After (Officer) Kilgore’s scheme was exposed, the charges against Plaintiff and numerous other victims of the scheme were dropped. Accordingly, plaintiff brings this action for wrongful arrest and malicious prosecution,” said a complaint in the lawsuit filed in federal court last month.
William Sidney Blevins and his girlfriend Amanda Woods were driving from Leesburg to Centre, north of Gadsden, to meet with a friend on the night of January 25, at about 11 p.m. when an officer pulled them over, according to the complaint. Officer Michael Andrew Kilgore, 39, told Blevins he pulled him over because his tag light was out and asked to search the car. According to the complaint, Blevins said no to the search and the officer told them both to step out of the car and he put them in handcuffs.
A K-9 officer, Shane Butler, then arrived at the arrest scene with his dog and talked to Kilgore, according to the complaint. Butler walked around the car and ducked down by the open passenger door, out of sight of Blevins, according to the suit. Butler then stood up and went to get his K-9. Once at the car, the dog jumped in the passenger side.
“Kilgore came over and reached inside, then showed plaintiff a bag of what plaintiff assumed was illegal drugs. Kilgore claimed to have found the bag inside the vehicle,” the lawsuit said.
Blevins had never seen bag before, according to the suit. Officers arrested him for possessing methamphetamine and took him to Cherokee County Jail where he stayed until the next afternoon, according to the lawsuit. His lawsuit claims he was forced to sleep on the concrete jail floor which caused a shoulder injury. His name, mugshot and charges were published in the local paper.
On May 3, Kilgore was arrested for a criminal conspiracy to commit a controlled substance crime-distribution. The suit says the charges against Blevins and several others were dropped after Kilgore’s arrest.
Kilgore is no longer employed by Centre police. Multiple efforts to reach Kilgore for comment were unsuccessful. His attorney in the case is not listed yet.
“I am afraid this case is just scratching the surface of the damage Officer Kilgore has done to the innocent people he arrested for possessing or distributing drugs, drugs that he planted on them so he could get another drug bust to his credit,” said Jon Goldfarb, Blevins’ attorney.
Butler is also named in the lawsuit. He is an officer at the Cedar Bluff Police Department. Neither Butler nor the Cedar Bluff Police Department returned multiple calls for comment for this article.
According to the complaint, a confidential informant had reported that Kilgore was planting evidence a few days after Blevins’ arrest and there was an investigation underway into Kilgore at the time Blevins visited the chief.
In total, Kilgore worked at the department for less than a year, according to the department’s Facebook page. After the first two months of his employment, the Centre Police Department announced online a significant number of arrests, many of them drug related. Of 138 new cases at the department between June and August of 2022, there were 70 arrests, including 49 charges from drug/narcotic violations and 26 from drug equipment violations, according to the department. Five charges were for possession of illegal prescription drugs. The department said it had removed 1.47 pounds of methamphetamine, a gram of heroin and 4.66 pounds of marijuana.
“We are very disappointed in Kilgore’s conduct,” said Centre Police Chief Kirk Blankenship in a public statement in May. “There is no excuse for any officer violating the law like this.”