Huey Granger, 46, has re-opened a federal lawsuit against two former police officers who placed a glass lampshade on his head to give him a fake lie detector test and struck him in the back of the head in 2002. He seeks $2,000,000 and payment of his health insurance costs for life from Keith Peterson and Jeff Tims, both formerly of the Pearl, Mississippi police department. The entire incident was videotaped, and the police department admitted the officers were at fault. Granger's lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial November 3, 2008, in front of U.S. Judge Sumner.
In June of 2002, Huey Granger filed a police report after finding a young man in his 16-year-old daughter's bedroom rifling through her possessions. At the police station, Granger was jailed, accused of making up the police report, and interrogated by Peterson and Thames. "He hit me in the back of my head and messed my neck up pretty bad and put a lampshade on my head with electric wires hooked to it and was trying to shoot electricity to me and get me to change my story to what happened to my daughter," Granger said.
During the interrogation, one of the officers noticed Granger's wedding ring and asked if he was married. When Mr. Granger said he had married a Filipino, the officer told him his marriage was illegal and that he could spend 15 years in jail for marrying someone of a different race.
Granger was told that if he lied, he would receive a painful electric shock. When Granger answered the second-to-last question, an officer stood behind him and slammed a fist on the table, making Granger jump. The officer then said, "I know you felt it (the electric shock) that time." On the last question, the officer told Granger that he was "Really going to feel it" if he lied. When Granger answered, the officer punched him in the back of the head, knocking the lampshade to the ground and cracking it.
Mr. Granger now wears a battery operated neck massaging brace, which he says treats pain he still feels as a result of being struck by the police officer.
For Huey Granger, the skill of self-advocacy has been life-saving. He was raised from the age of seven in a Louisiana cult that he says brainwashed his parents and convinced them to pull him from school. He was never taught to read and didn't receive his diagnosis of dyslexia until adulthood. Instead, Granger was forced to spend an hour each day in Bible school, and the rest of his time on highways begging for money for the church. At age 20, he escaped, and received death threats from the cult as a result.
Nonetheless, Granger persevered in building a new life. He married Brenda Granger, who he met during a church youth gathering, and worked as a baker. However, his illiteracy became a problem at work and at home. He enrolled in a high school equivalency study program, and 16 years after his escape from the cult, Huey Granger received a GED. He described his graduation as the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.
After the 2002 incident, Granger again had to fight for his rights at his place of employment. When information on the lampshade "lie detector" test became public on June 15th, 2002, Granger was transferred from his job as a Wal-Mart stock clerk to the Home and Furnishings Department, where his primary task was keeping lampshades in stock overnight. He said that between 1:00 and 2:00 AM every night, Pearl police officers came to his place of employment and laughed at him as he stocked the lampshades. With help from the non-profit Mississippi Protection and Advocacy System, he secured a transfer back to his general stock job, and reported no further trouble with supervisors.
Justice has been a long time coming for Huey Granger, and he's faced numerous obstacles. He says he was pressured into signing an agreement with the police department in which he agreed not to sue in exchange for disciplinary action against the officers and the dropping of charges against him. He was able to file a lawsuit anyway, but federal judge ruled that the Pearl Police Department was not liable because there was "no pattern or history of abuse." Now, his suit against the individual officers is threatened by Tims and Peterson's attorney, who wants the case returned to inactive status.
There's no simple resolution in sight, but one thing is apparent: The man who escaped a cult and fought for 16 years to obtain an education isn't about to give up easily.
