LAURENS COUNTY, Ga. — A federal judge has ordered an East Dublin widow and a former Laurens County investigator to meet Tuesday to try to settle her wrongful-death lawsuit.
It's been more than seven years since officers shot and killed David Hooks inside his home during a drug raid.
That day, investigator Chris Brewer asked a judge to approve a search warrant for the raid. Laurens County officers were looking for meth in Hooks' house, but found none.
Teresa Pope Hooks' lawsuit argues that the raid was illegal and never should have happened.
Her lawyers argue that Brewer based the warrant on false information from a drug user and failed to verify the tip.
Two years ago, federal judges called Brewer's actions "reckless" and said the lawsuit against him should go forward.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Feb. 28 in Dublin's federal court, but Judge Dudley K. Bowen this month ordered Hooks and Brewer's lawyers to meet with him to discuss the case and "explore options for settlement."
The order came after both sides filed a flurry of motions and replies that seemed to preview a contentious trial.
For example:
- Brewer's lawyers want to include postmortem tests that show David Hooks had methamphetamine in his system. Hooks' lawyers want to exclude that, arguing that it's irrelevant to what Brewer knew when he asked for the search warrant.
- Teresa Hooks' lawyers want the judge to exclude information about Hooks' previous criminal record or the fact that she's remarried since his death.
- Brewer's lawyers want a prison inmate to testify that he worked for David Hooks in 2013, the year before he was killed, and that Hooks was a "big meth dealer."
- Brewer asked the judge to exclude dozens of topics – autopsy photos; that investigators found no drugs at Hooks' home; any suggestion that Bill Harrell, the sheriff in 2014, had a "vendetta" against Hooks; Teresa Hooks' emotional reaction to seeing her husband dead; or any suggestion that Brewer is a "dirty cop."
Bowen has not ruled on any of those pretrial motions.
The mediation session is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Augusta.
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