Glen Gibson, shown here during his April trial, is suing the law enforcement agencies that arrested him and accused him of the murder of his wife, Keri Gibson.
Easley Police Department, the City of Easley, the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office, and officials with the Thirteenth Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
After several days of testimony before a Pickens County jury, Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Court Judge Larry Patterson in a directed verdict ruled that state prosecutors had not submitted sufficient evidence for the jury to determine the guilt or innocence of Glen Everett Gibson, currently of Spartanburg.
Gibson had been accused of the murder of his wife, Keri Gibson, who was found dead in their 108 Pinewood Drive home.
During testimony Judge Patterson allowed prosecutors to present, Easley Police Department Capt. Gene Patterson told the jury that initially law enforcement investigators thought Mrs. Gibson’s death to be the result of a self-inflicted wound.
However, evidence retrieved from the home and processed by the State Law Enforcement Division caused police detectives to revisit their first findings, Patterson told the court during the April 2008 trial.
A bloodied, long-sleeved tee-shirt and gloves belonging to Gibson and tested by SLED contained particles of gunshot residue indicating the clothing had been present in the vicinity of a discharge from a firearm, Special Agent Iola Simmons, with SLED, testified.
There were no traces of lead found on the hands of Mrs. Gibson or her husband, Simmons testified.
In a surprise move by the court, Judge Patterson halted the proceedings, saying that he found that evidence was insufficient for a jury to make a reasonable determination.
The judge discounted the gunshot residue on the sleeve of the shirt and left glove, and told the court that the prosecution had not proved that the traces of lead on clothing was the direct result of gunfire.
Judge Patterson also said that because the victim’s hands had not been bagged during transfer from her home to the hospital, her hands could have been contaminated and evidence lost due to washing.
While telling Keri Gibson’s parents, who sat in the courtroom, that he understood their feelings, he believed state prosecutors had not met its burden of proof.
“I just have trouble seeing the state’s theory,” Judge Patterson said before acquitting Gibson.
In the lawsuit, filed by Camden attorney Robert Butcher, Gibson accuses officials with the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office of violating his constitutional rights by “tape recording, eavesdropping and listening in on (his) privileged conversations with this attorney and his attorney’s staff.”
Gibson, who was held for one and one-half years in prison while awaiting trial, states in the lawsuit that “law enforcement moved evidence and staged the scene in photographs” that were placed into evidence, and that these officers “had a “duty to not institute a frivolous criminal proceedings, a duty not (to) fabricate evidence, and a duty not to offer perjured testimony” and these officers “breached these duties and failed to exercise even a slight degree of care and this breach is the proximate cause of (Gibson’s) injuries.”
The lawsuit alleges that Thirteenth Circuit Solicitor Bob Ariail failed to properly train his assistant solicitors and accused the officers of the court of being “deficient in their knowledge of” criminal investigations and procedures, Fourth Amendment seizures, not fabricating evidence, and not offering perjured testimony or fabricated evidence.
In its 13 causes of action, including false imprisonment, gross negligence, invasion of privacy and a violation of his Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights, Gibson states in the lawsuit that he is seeking a judgment against the listed defendants and are asking that the court award compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorney’s fees and costs.
After Gibson was acquitted last year, Capt. Patterson said that he was disappointed in the judge’s ruling.
“We thought we had a good case,” Gene Patterson said after the trial. “I wish that decision had been left to the jury.
“Keri Gibson’s family deserved that much,” he said.
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