Man files federal suit against Whitley officials

A Williamsburg man has filed a federal lawsuit against prosecutors, investigators, social workers and others saying they intentionally and maliciously prosecuted him for sodomy in 2001 when they knew he might not have actually committed the crime.

Samuel Plotnick served six years in a state prison for allegedly sodomizing his girlfriend’s four-year-old son with a tent pole in late 2000. He was convicted of the crime on September 13, 2001 by a Whitley County jury and sentenced to 20 years in prison. But in January 2008, the Kentucky Court of Appeals vacated the judgment against Plotnick saying that his court-appointed attorney, Public Defender Ron Findell, provided “ineffective counsel” by not objecting to hearsay statements from the victim’s grandmother, a state police detective, and a social worker, which served to corroborate the prosecution’s theory in the case.

The appeals court decision was finalized on Feb. 22, 2008 and an order of dismissal was entered in Whitley County Circuit Court on Sept. 7, 2008.

Through Cincinnati attorney William P. Whalen, Jr., Plotnick has filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in London Feb. 20 seeking over $700,000 in damages against Whitley County Commonwealth’s Attorney Allen Trimble, former Kentucky State Police Detective Stacy Anderkin, the Whitley County Fiscal Court, Findell, the state Attorney General, social worker Chessica Riley, Whitley County Jailer Ken Mobley and the alleged victim’s grandmother.

“[The] Plaintiff alleges he was arrested without probable cause by Defendant who, under the facts available, did not have an objective, good-faith belief that Plaintiff was guilty of the offense charge,” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiff further alleges that such arrest was in violation of his right under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution to be free from unreasonable arrest and his right under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution to due process of law.”

The lawsuit claims Anderkin did not investigate the case thoroughly and did not interview another alleged suspect in the case. The supposed victim was the then four-year-old son of Plotnick’s girlfriend. Prosecutors and investigators claimed Plotnick sodomized the boy with a tent pole. At trial, the victim recanted his claim that Plotnick sodomized him and identified another man his mother dated as the perpetrator.

The victim’s mother, who has a second child by Plotnick, took the victim to see Plotnick at the Whitley County Jail while Plotnick was waiting to stand trial for sodomizing the boy, Commonwealth’s Attorney Allen Trimble said during court proceedings prior to the initial trial. The victim’s mother also corresponded with Plotnick while he was in jail, and defense attorneys had 38 letters from the victim’s mother to Plotnick, some of which said that the boy was lying.
In the lawsuit, Plotnick’s attorney claims Trimble threatened to take the mother’s child away from her if she repeated to anyone that the boy’s story was fabricated. The lawsuit also accused Trimble of allows “blatant hearsay” testimony, misconduct and “intentional and malicious” failure to investigate the case properly before trial in order to win a conviction.

The lawsuit also claims Social Worker Chessica Riley, who received the original complaint in the case, was negligent in her duties because she did not interview Plotnick, did not obtain or investigate the clothing of the child, did not interview another alleged suspect in the matter and did not check to see of Plotnick owned the equipment allegedly used in the crime.

Findell is accused of ineffective counsel in the case. The child’s grandmother is accused of inducing the boy to testify and claims she “threatened her daughter to prohibit her from producing evidence that would show the Plaintiff’s innocence.”

Mobley is accused of withholding medications from Plotnick in Feb. 2008 when he was transferred from Eddyville State Prison to the Whitley County Jail.

No response by any of the defendants has yet been filed in the case.