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JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – Jacksonville and its insurance carrier have agreed to pay the former director of a drug treatment center more than a half-million dollars after his arrest three years ago.
Jeffrey Jones was director of the Jacksonville Treatment Center when police officers on August 16, 2023, came to the Huff Drive facility saying they had an arrest warrant for a woman who they believed was inside.
The lawsuit says under federal law, the facility couldn’t provide any patient identifying information unless the patient had signed a disclosure, police had a special court order, a search warrant, or the program was making a report of a crime.
Police handcuffed Jones and put him in a patrol car while they searched the facility for the woman who was found in a treatment session and arrested.
The suit says Jones was eventually charged with felony harboring an escapee, and resisting a public officer.
Despite being told that Jones was only following federal law, the suit says then police chief Mike Yaneiro “wanted to press the prosecution forward, and that he opposed dismissing Plaintiff’s criminal charges.”
The suit says both before and after the director’s arrest, police drove through the center’s private parking lot, and even wrote license plates down of vehicles parked there. Officers were also accused of parking nearby and pulling over vehicles that had left the facility.
A year later, the lawsuit says the district attorney dismissed the charges against Jones.
“The Jacksonville Police Department maintained an established practice and custom of disregarding the statutory and constitutional protections afforded to federally regulated substance-abuse treatment facilities,” the suit said.
Jones resigned as the center’s director early last year “as a direct result of the psychological symptoms caused by Defendants’ misconduct,” according to the lawsuit.
In the $550,000 settlement, the city agrees to pay the NC League of Municipalities, its insurance provider, $216,666,50.
The settlement agreement says the city denies any wrongdoing on the part of its police department or its officers.
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