Opinion ID: 1616885
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Sturgeon/Miller Incident

Text: On the evening of April 17, 1989, McKnight and a fellow patrolman, Keith Lott, had been drinking and cruising in McKnight's patrol car. Around midnight, the two patrolmen cruised out to the Ross Barnett Reservoir where they stopped a car occupied by two young adults, Starla Sturgeon and Jimmy Miller. Sturgeon and Miller were returning home after mailing Miller's income-tax return at the Main Post Office in downtown Jackson. Lott asked Sturgeon what she and Miller were doing and asked to see her driver's license. Sturgeon got out of the car and noticed that the patrolmen were out of uniform and drinking vodka. When Sturgeon told Miller about the vodka, Lott grabbed her by the arm and put her in the patrol car. Officer Lott then grabbed Miller's shirt at the bottom and threw it up to his neck and threw him against Sturgeon's car. Upon witnessing the patrolmen's attack on Miller, Sturgeon attempted to get out of the patrol car; the patrolmen, however, forced her back into the car. McKnight and Lott then got into their patrol car and started to drive off. What the patrolmen were planning to do with Sturgeon is unknown. At that point, Sturgeon became hysterical and started crying. Sturgeon's hysteria prompted the patrolmen to return her to her car where Miller presumably waited. The patrolmen then lectured them about the evils of drugs, and they drove off. Sturgeon immediately reported the incident to the Rankin County Sheriff's Department.