Details of account vary in taser case involving authorities, Stanardsville woman

Stories vary as to what happened at the Stanardsville home of Pamela Collier the night of September 15, 2007.
What Collier says happened led to the filing of an $850,000 lawsuit in Greene County Circuit Court against a deputy and the sheriff of the Greene County Sheriff’s Office. C. Waverly Parker of Stanardsville filed the suit July 27 on her behalf.
Carlene Booth Johnson of the Perry Law Firm in Dillwyn, Virginia, filed two motions August 20 on behalf of Sheriff Scott Haas and Deputy Kevin Freid. One, a Motion for a Bill of Particulars, asks the court to require Collier to file specific grounds for the suit. The other, a Plea of Sovereign Immunity, argues that Haas and Freid are subject to sovereign immunity and requests that the case be dismissed with prejudice.
A dismissal with prejudice would mean that the plaintiff can never bring suit for the same claim again.
On August 31 Parker filed motions to strike both of the defendants’ motions. He is demanding trial by jury as to every issue made in this case.
Those issues are spelled out in incident reports located in the Greene County Sheriff’s Office and case files kept in the Greene County Clerk of Court’s office.
Copies of incident reports were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. They state that on September 15, 2007 Deputy J.L. White tried to pull over a white 1996 Chevrolet van that didn’t have tag lights. The driver pulled into 8839 Spotswood Trail and ran out of the van. White arrested the van’s passenger, Kenneth Williams, on a charge of possession of a controlled substance after a consensual search, and Freid chased the driver.
The home at 8839 Spotswood Trail is occupied by Collier and Timothy Breeden, her domestic companion, and their then-four-year-old daughter.
Freid’s incident report said the deputy approached the house and saw the man, who was later identified as Breeden, trying to hold the door shut with a woman, who was later identified as Collier.
“Once inside the house, Ms. Collier started punching me in the chest and face and trying to push me out of the house, not allowing me to arrest the male,“ Freid’s report said. The report said Freid had to “use force” to take Collier to the ground, but it did not specify how he did so.
“Once on the ground, while I was trying to place handcuffs on her, she was kicking and trying to pull her hands from me,“ the report said. “She was actively resisting me to take her into custody. I was finally able to take her into custody and warrants were obtained.“
But Collier tells a different story, based on filings.
The complaint against Haas and Freid filed on July 27 alleges that Collier and her daughter were napping when they were awakened by “an immense banging” on the kitchen door.
Collier is alleged to have implored Freid to tell her what was wrong, and, “receiving no response other than continued battering on the door and demands that she open it,“ Collier … asked him to leave her property and, when he did not, asked him ‘Don’t you need a warrant to come into my home?‘“ Freid, allegedly “in a rage and livid, replied that he did not need a warrant and threatened to break the door down unless it was opened immediately.“
According to the complaint, Breeden came into the kitchen and … told plaintiff to ‘Go ahead and open the door.‘ As soon as the door was unlocked, Freid, fully uniformed and armed as a deputy sheriff, slammed the door open with such force that it damaged the trim around it … “as soon as Freid was clear of the door and without first asking plaintiff any questions or giving her any instructions, he shot her with barbs and wires and shocked her with 50,000 volts of electricity from his taser gun, knocking her to the floor on her back, pinning her down with his body and then turning her over onto her stomach (to which the taser probes were still attached) and capturing her into handcuffs.“
Among other allegations, the document alleges that Collier’s daughter was witness to the events. It also alleges that Freid never had, nor ever attempted to obtain, a warrant or other pertinent process; that no consent to his entrance across Collier’s threshold could be implied; and that his entrance was intentional and unlawful.
According to records on file at the County Clerk’s Office Breeden was charged with driving while his license was revoked, driving under the influence, attempting to elude police, and obstruction of justice the next day. Also the next day, Collier was charged with assault and battery on a police officer, resisting arrest and obstruction of justice.
Freid also charged that “in connection with his entrance into the home” Collier “acted so grossly and wantonly as to show a reckless disregard” for her daughter’s life, according to the complaint filed July 27. The complaint filed July 27 alleges that Collier and Breeden had only severely limited contact with her for about two months, “under cogent threat that they would lose all contact with her if they did not limit that contact and attend and pay for classes as specified by the local department of social services.“
Reports state that the Commonwealth Attorney did not prosecute White.
Breeden reached a plea agreement with the Commonwealth on August 12, 2008 in which he pleaded guilty as charged to the misdemeanor offenses of driving while his license was revoked under a DUI conviction and obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to 12 months in jail with six months suspended for each offense.
Ultimately, all the charges against Collier were compressed into one: assaulting and battering a law enforcement officer engaged in the performance of his duties. A jury found her not guilty of the charge in Greene County Circuit Court on September 9, 2008.
The complaint filed July 27 alleges that the actions of Freid, among other things, “ oppressive and taken in conscious disregard.”
This is not Parker’s first suit against Haas and a deputy: he represented Greene grandmother Linda C. Morris in a $1.2 million civil suit against Haas and a deputy. That suit said Deputy Paul R. Lester II trespassed on Morris’ property while trying to give Morris’ then-three-year-old granddaughter to the girl’s mother. The child’s parents had a dispute over the girl’s paternity, but her father’s lawyer told her that he should keep custody of the child until the next hearing unless a court order was issued. Lester did not have a court order, the suit said. Morris settled for $85,000 in March 2008.
Nor is it the first time Collier has been charged with assault. On February 29 of 2004 she was arrested for the assault and battery of Christopher Bennett Smith and the assault and battery of Gary Roach, as well as for intentionally destroying a television worth $1,000 or more.  She was tried by a judge,  found guilty of all charges,  and sentenced to 4 month in jail, suspended, for each offense.
No court date has been set for the current case to be heard.