KINGSPORT, Tenn. (WJHL) – A defendant named in a civil lawsuit centered around a Kingsport woman’s 2021 arrest has been removed from the lawsuit after the plaintiff said he had been misidentified.
According to a court order filed in the U.S. District Court in Greeneville on April 21, defendant Rodger Jones was dropped from the lawsuit after a request by plaintiff Robin Fritz.
The order states that Fritz learned “Jones is not a proper party to this action” and “was misidentified during the course of pre-litigation investigation of this matter.” The motion to dismiss Jones from the lawsuit was granted under a federal rule allowing the court to add or drop a party at any time.
Jones had asked for a summary judgment in the matter in his favor, the order reads. However, that motion was denied, and Jones was dismissed from the lawsuit after the order was signed by U.S. District Judge Charles E. Atchley, Jr.
Fritz told the court she also wished to name Richard Kindle as a defendant in the lawsuit, which the court allowed so long as she did so by April 28.
Fritz filed the lawsuit after she alleged deputies with the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office injured her during a May 2021 arrest. When it was first filed, Fritz named the county, the sheriff’s office and several individual members of law enforcement as defendants.
Jones had previously been named by Fritz as a constable who allegedly mistreated her during the arrest by ripping a mask off her face while she was in a squad car.
The court order states that upon Jones being dismissed from the lawsuit after being misidentified, “he will face no further burden of litigation.”
