[03/20/01] The family of an oral surgeon who sought an apology from the City of Vicksburg for false arrest for more than two years will now get it more than three months after his death.

His estate will also get $350,000 from a city insurance policy that has also been paying the city’s legal bills in the case.

Dr. James E. Ruggles, who died Nov. 23, was known as a philanthropist and often performed surgery for the poor here and in Third World countries without expecting to be paid.

A cadre of city police, whom court records say had been advised by District Attorney Gil Martin they had no evidence of a crime, arrested him on a busy streetside late on a Friday in February 1999. He was never prosecuted on the charge of distributing controlled substances without a prescription.

“I am truly disappointed that this didn’t happen while Jim was still alive,” said Landman Teller Jr., attorney for Ruggles and his family.

The settlement approved by a federal court says the city must apologize, and Teller said a statement including an apology has been issued to the Ruggles family. He said any comment on it should come from the city.

Mayor Robert Walker said this morning that he would not discuss the statement.

“This is one of those things that you want to get behind you,” Walker said. “I have made it my policy not to discuss ongoing litigation.”

The order dismissing the case due to the settlement was signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge James C. Sumner in Jackson.

Alderman Sam Habeeb, who strongly advocated the city admit its errors and settle the case in a guest column in The Vicksburg Post March 11, said the lawsuit was discussed in executive session during Monday’s meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. He would not divulge what was said at the meeting or the contents of the statement.

His reason, he said, is that the case has not been closed in Warren County Chancery Court, which has a role since the settlement is with the Ruggles estate.

Ruggles, who was a cancer patient, died last Thanksgiving Day. He was 54.

The trial was originally set to start Aug. 28, but the three Jackson attorneys representing Vicksburg filed an appeal to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals asking that a pretrial ruling be reversed.

The motion essentially said the officers who arrested Ruggles should have qualified immunity for their actions because they were public officials acting in good faith.

In January, the appeals court said that was an issue that would be decided at trial. The case then was scheduled for trial April 26 before U.S. District Judge David C. Bramlette.

The city’s attorneys also lost on motions to close the records in the case to the public. Teller objected to closure, and a brief was filed by The Vicksburg Post.

The file says that after the charges were not prosecuted, Dr. Ruggles had sought an apology from City Hall and filed suit only when there was no response. A specific amount of money damages was never specified.

The report of the plaintiffs’ expert witness in the case cites a poisonous, vicious atmosphere in the police department, alleging incompetence, indifference and open falsification of sworn statements. Officers named in the case, with the exception of former Chief Charles Chisley who has retired, remain on the force.

Walker, who is police commissioner and is running for re-election, wouldn’t comment on any disciplinary action that has or could be taken against Sgt. Tom Wilson or Lt. Walter Beamon.

“What we have been focusing on is working with the legal matter, and now that that has been pretty much resolved we can look at whatever else we need to do,” he said.

The case against Ruggles began with a traffic stop involving Sherry Balthrup, an employee of Ruggles’ surgical clinic. Police found a few Valium tablets loose in her purse. She said Ruggles had given them to her years earlier, before a mission trip, due to her anxiety about flying. She didn’t take the pills and they remained in her purse.

Before his arrest, Ruggles confirmed the story to officers, but he was later pulled over and hauled out of his car and arrested. The expert said this was a tactic often used by rogue officers to humiliate a person, and by timing an arrest for Friday afternoon they can make it difficult for a suspect to find a judge or post bail.

It was the second settlement of a police-related lawsuit in recent weeks.

Without admitting liability, Vicksburg paid $10,000 to a woman who had been raped and robbed in July 1999. Her lawsuit was based on graphic racial and sexual remarks alleged to have been made by a police sergeant not assigned to the case. That officer, Sgt. Carl Houston, left the department months later, was not disciplined in any way made public. Last fall, his name was added to a list of people eligible for rehiring.