Hanceville Police cruiser.

An attorney for Hanceville resident Josh Phillips said he plans to appeal a decision to dismiss a 2022 lawsuit against the city of Hanceville, which claimed Phillips was wrongfully detained and abused by three members of the city’s police department in 2020.

“We will seek relief by appealing this unjust decision to 11th Circuit of Appeals,” Phillips’ attorney, Roderick Van Daniel said in a press release sent to The Times.

The lawsuit claimed that Phillips was unlawfully arrested and became the victim of excessive force at the hands of three former HPD officers — Kyle Duncan, Josh Howell and Lowell Adam Hadder — while attempting to file a complaint to the city of Hanceville in September 2020.

The suit alleged the incident was the result of a broader system of corruption and accused Hadder of intentionally losing video evidence to support Phillips’ claims after five former officers were indicted on criminal charges in February.

None of the officers included in Phillips’ lawsuit were included in the list of those facing criminal charges in Cullman County.

Federal Judge Liles Burke for the Northern District Court of Alabama recently dismissed Phillips’ lawsuit. However, Van Daniels said it has not ended his client’s dispute.

“We have to go by the Constitution. This decision is not final. We will fight all the way to U.S. Supreme Court for justice. It has been documented of the corruption in the City of Hanceville,” Van Daniels said. “Josh was the first citizen to stand up against the corruption; we will continue the fight for ‘transparency and accountability.'”

The press release said Phillips is remaining hopeful about the potential for appeal.

“God will guide our steps. We shall look to the highest courts in the United States to get justice for the wrong that was done to me. I fight for myself, my family, the citizens of Hanceville, Alabama. We all have been done wrong by the corruption from the leadership of our community. I trust in the Lord to guide our steps,”  Phillips said.

Patrick Camp may be reached by email at patrick.camp@cullmantimes.com or by phone at 256-734-2131.