By Jerry Markon
The Commercial Appeal
Jackson, Tenn., Bureau
PARENTS FILE SUIT IN DEPUTY’S DEATH | One year to the day Tipton County Sheriff’s Deputy Ricky Rose was shot in his office, his family has filed a lawsuit charging official negligence in Rose’s death.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Memphis, charges that former Tipton County, Tenn., Sheriff Wayne Baskin “authorized, approved or ordered” Rose’s death. Baskin, who resigned after pleading guilty to federal corruption charges in June, enters federal prison in Alabama today to begin serving a 33-month sentence.
Rose, a narcotics investigator in Baskin’s department, was shot in the head last Nov. 28 in his office at the Criminal Justice Complex in Covington. He died the next day.
The death triggered the federal probe into Tipton County corruption that resulted in Baskin’s indictment. The probe is continuing, but federal officials said Tuesday they don’t expect more indictments soon. State and federal officials are still investigating Rose’s death.
State authorities initially said Rose had accidentally shot himself. But after a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation probe, Rose’s partner, Deputy Jimmy Hicks, was charges with involuntary manslaughter in the death.
Charges against Hicks were dismissed at a preliminary hearing in February. “The proof showed it was an accidental shooting. There has never been any contention it was deliberate,” said Michael Whitaker, who represented Hicks at his preliminary hearing in February.
But Tuesday’s lawsuit, filed by Rose’s parents, Lawrence and Bonnie Rose, charges that Hicks “intentionally and maliciously” shot Rose “with the intent to cause his death.”
The suit says Rose knew about “illegal activities” of Baskin and Hicks. Baskin and Hicks, the suit charges, feared that “Rose would provide information to the FBI that would lead to their arrests.”
The suit, which asks for $7 million in damages, also names Tipton County for failing to properly supervise Hicks.
Rose’s brother, Michael Rose, said Tuesday that Hicks did not have the training required by state law to be a sheriff’s deputy.
Under state law, deputies are required to take a law enforcement training course after they have been on the job a year.
“Every police officer should have training and Hicks didn’t,” said Rose, a police officer in Millington. “It was at the very least gross negligence.”
Hicks, who no longer works for th sheriff’s department and has an unlisted phone number, could not be reached Tuesday.
At the time of Rose’s death, Hicks and Rose were described as “best friends.” At the time, Rose’s father, Lawrence Rose, said Hicks was “like a son to me.”
Baskin was unavailable for comment Tuesday. The former sheriff, 55, was scheduled to enter the Federal Prison Camp in Montgomery, Ala., today to begin serving his sentence.
Baskin was indicted by a federal grand jury June 22 on charges of extortion, obstruction of justice and mail fraud. He pleaded guilty and resigned that day in a plea agreement.
Prosecutors charged that Baskin extorted money from drug suspects; pressured witnesses to lie to the grand jury and defrauded the sheriff’s department of $825.
[Parents file suit in deputy’s death; The Commercial Appeal; Memphis, Tenn; 29 Nov 1989; Pg 21]
