Jury Awards Tennessee Rancher $485,000 for Livestock Seized Without Warrant
The Marshall County, Tenn., sheriff’s office and two of its employees were ordered to pay a Tennessee couple $375,000 in compensatory damages and $110,000 in punitive damages by a jury in federal court.
In 2019 Matthew and Julie Hopkins sued the Marshall County sheriff’s office, sheriff Billy Lamb and detective Tony Nichols in their individual and official capacities, after their cattle were unlawfully seized by the department without a search warrant in July of 2018.
According to a report in The Tennessean, the sheriff’s office received a complaint about possible animal mistreatment on the Hopkins’ farm. At the initial contact on July 2, 2018, detective Nichols and a state investigator observed a dead cow in a stream and also reported several of the cattle were in poor health. The Hopkins family claim the issues observed by the officials were due to the age of the cattle.
Nichols, Lamb and other officers returned to the farm on July 13 and seized 49 of the Hopkins’ cattle without a warrant, court records indicate. Matthew Hopkins was charged with 49 counts of animal cruelty.
Two weeks later, after his attorney requested that the sheriff’s office stay off Hopkins’ property, Nichols obtained his first two search warrants, which he then used to seize the Hopkins’ four remaining cattle, according to the lawsuit.
The sheriff’s office arranged for the cattle to be cared for by another farmer while the legal process proceeded. The cattle were sold at auction in December 2018.
Three days after the cattle were sold, the charges against Matthew Hopkins were dropped on the condition that the proceeds from the sale go toward the upkeep costs that had been incurred. The sheriff’s office agreed to pay any remaining amount.
The Hopkins filed their lawsuit in 2019, and the trial ended in October 2023.
The Hopkins and their two sons have since moved from Marshall County to a farm in neighboring Giles County south of Nashville and have begun building a new herd of cows.
