After appeals for leniency from a wife, a mother, a father and Elmore County Sheriff Bill Franklin, Blake Hicks will serve 29 months in federal prison for his part in an excessive force case.
“This isn’t an average person kicking someone in the head during a bar fight,” Assistant United States Attorney Eric Counts said at Hicks’ sentencing Monday. “This is a person sworn to uphold the law.”
Counts said the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington D.C. saw Hicks performing excessive force in a video online and called Hicks to ask what was happening in Wetumpka. The video shows part of the encounter between Tristen Quinn and area law enforcement in March 2022. Quinn was arrested and placed in a police vehicle for transport where he reportedly struck law enforcement in the back seat of the car. Quinn was also able to get his handcuffed hands from behind him to his front. He then escaped the back of the patrol vehicle. The video from a convenience store on U.S. Highway 231 shows Quinn running from law enforcement. He turns to face them when he is struck by Tasers. Hicks is then seen leaping and landing on Quinn. Hicks also strikes Quinn with his fist and with kicks.
The Wetumpka Herald first reported on the incident in July 2022. It was the first time a video of the incident had been released. Quinn had multiple charges from the incident and filed an intent to sue in civil court. The City of Wetumpka and Elmore County settled out of court with undisclosed financial compensation to Quinn.
Federal District Court Judge L. Scott Coogler saw the video that caught the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice and started the prosecution of Hicks. He said at first the video of Hicks leaping towards Quinn was disturbing. But the judge slowed the video down in his chambers to review it before Monday’s hearing. He said he saw an officer trying to possibly avoid the wires of a Taser deployed to stop Quinn. The judge also noted he saw Hicks kneel down in what appears to be a strike to Quinn’s face and then kick him again.
Hicks' attorney Richard Keith said the strikes were brachial punches meant to subdue Quinn, but difficult to locate because of the length of Quinn’s hair.
Hicks admitted to his part in the matter in March. He recounted portions of the March 2022 evening where he came to the aid of an officer with the Wetumpka Police Department who wasn’t responding to dispatch during a traffic stop. Hicks said by the time he arrived on the scene he saw another officer bloodied and bruised. Hicks told Coogler his reaction stemmed from PTSD from his Marine Corps service. Hicks saw his best friend killed by sniper fire and he also sustained a traumatic brain injury. Since the brain injury was in a combat zone, his medical treatment was delayed. He returned from the Marines to the ECSO. He pulled victims from a burning vehicle and in February 2022 was shot between his chest and shoulder during a call near Eclectic. When he responded to the traffic stop, the bullet was still near his shoulder.
Franklin said Hicks was on the county’s SWAT team and agreed that he likely let him come back too quickly. Just 25 days after the shooting, Hicks returned to patrol. Nine days later Hicks encountered the Quinn traffic stop.
“I was unaware at the time [Quinn] was handcuffed,” Hicks told Coogler. “I saw the subject as a threat and subdued him. I regret my actions that day.”
Hicks was taken off patrol after the incident and was soon placed on a one-year unpaid leave as it was investigated. Hicks later left law enforcement and started to work in the private sector.
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Hicks said he would apologize for his part in the events of the day to Quinn if he were present. Counts said victim services had attempted to contact Quinn to let him know he could be at sentencing.
Hicks asked for leniency. Coogler said he couldn’t take much into account since he pleaded guilty. The federal court guidelines recommended a prison sentence of 41 to 51 months since Coogler ruled the incident an assault. An aggravated assault ruling would have had a 97 to 121 month recommended prison sentence.
Hicks' plea agreement had prosecutors recommending a sentence at the lower end of the recommendations. Coogler also gave Hicks 12 months off the sentence for his service in the Marines.
Hicks will not report to prison immediately. Coogler said first the Federal Bureau of Prisons must document him as being prior law enforcement to better protect him behind bars.
“You are not the first law enforcement officer to go to prison,” Coogler said.
If Hicks hasn’t heard from the bureau of prisons within 60 days, he is to check with his attorney, the court and the U.S. Marshalls Service to see what his next steps are.
Franklin said his department was looking for Quinn after a failure to appear in court on a resisting arrest case that was still ongoing in circuit court.
According to court records, Quinn wrote 19th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Joy Booth a letter apologizing for not being in court in March because he did not know about it because of having no attorney. He asked for a trial date to be set.
Booth set a court date for September in the matter.
