Deputy, dog get their man - wrong one

The Alabama Bureau of Investigation has been called to investigate a possible case of police brutality by a Clarke County sheriff's deputy who was at the wrong house.

According to Shon Calhoun of Jackson, Deputy Jim Mundie dragged him from his truck, shoved him against the truck, injuring his shoulder and had the sheriff's department canine officer Capon bite Calhoun in the buttocks.

"It was Sunday evening about 8:30. I had been at my parents' house in Zimco and was going home. I saw some children on some four-wheelers and thought they might be mine. I was going to pick them up and take them home with me," Calhoun said.

He turned around to go find the children but they had disappeared. In the meantime he had noticed two patrol cars in the area.

"My family all lives out there and the police were pulling into some of my relatives' driveways. I thought they were looking for the four-wheelers too. There wasn't anything else going on out there. One of them pulled in front of my uncle's barber shop with his lights off. I turned around and was going to ask him if he had seen the four-wheelers when he (Mundie) came running at me with a gun and the dog, yelling at me to get out of my truck. I asked him to please put the gun down."

Calhoun said Mundie then said "I ought to make this dog bite you."

"I asked him why and the deputy told me to shut up and turn around. He pulled me out of the truck while I was trying to put it in park. He had the gun pointed right at my face and told the dog 'get him.' The dog bit me on my butt and then another officer put the cuffs on me," Calhoun said.

Ansel Portis, Calhoun's passenger, was also handcuffed. "He (Mundie) said I saw the police and ran and jumped in the truck. If I was trying to get away from the police why would I jump in a truck that's going to them," Portis said.

By this time several family members had come from their homes to see what the commotion was about. Calhoun's children had witnessed and were telling the officers their father hadn't done anything. They were allegedly told to "shut up and go home."

Calhoun was taken to the hospital and then to jail. He was originally charged with reckless endangerment, resisting arrest and trying to run over a police officer.

"They let me go about one in the morning and told me all the charges had been dropped against me. "It turns out they were at the wrong house. They were supposed to be at a house on Highway 84 where there was supposed to be guns and fighting, not on Zimco Road where there was nothing going on."

Sheriff Bobby Moore did not comment on the incident. He stated he was waiting until the ABI concludes its investigation.