Vigilante Justice|with a Cattle Prod

GREENEVILLE, Miss. (CN) - Three cattle farmers acted as "self-appointed judge, jury and executioner," torturing a man with a cattle prod and holding guns to his head as they interrogated him about an incident "that may or may not have happened," Morio Gomes claims in Federal Court.

Gomes sued Doug K. Mitchell, Gary M. Mitchell and Timothy P. Garvin and Mitchell Farm & Cattle, of Corinth, Miss.

Gomes says the men lured him to their cattle farm under the pretext of offering him a job, then interrogated him while holding guns to his head and shocking him with a cattle prod.

They interrogated him "about an assault that may or may not have happened to Doug Mitchell's son some time in the past," Gomes says in the complaint.

Gomes says he repeatedly denied any involvement in the alleged assault, and that the "torture" left him with "significant pain and burns on his skin".

Gomes claims the three men lied about having an arrest warrant for him and told his boss that "arrest could likely be avoided" if Gomes went to the farm.

Gomes says he went to the farm believing he would be doing some duct work, but as soon as he arrived, he was "forcibly and against his will taken to the farm office and placed in a chair. The defendant, Gary Mitchell, immediately picked up a hand gun, pointed it at the plaintiff's head and demanded that the plaintiff stay in the chair and not move."

Then, Gomes says, Garvin also put a gun to his head and Doug Mitchell "began to question the plaintiff about an assault that may or may not have happened to Doug Mitchell's son some time in the past."

Gomes denied having anything to do with the assault, upon which Doug Moore became agitated. Gomes says he was "concerned for his safety and felt that his safety and life were in imminent danger."

The complaint states: "Doug Mitchell retrieved a cattle prod and after threatening him with it, struck the plaintiff, causing a severe electrical shock and burns to the plaintiff on two occasions, all the while demanding that he admit to the assault on his son that the plaintiff has no knowledge of."

Gomes says he was threatened and taken at gunpoint to the sheriff's department to give a statement.

He says the defendants told him they had been "empowered" by the Sheriff of Alcorn County, Mississippi "to conduct their own investigation and to question the plaintiff any way they saw fit."

Gomes says he continued to deny any involvement in the assault throughout his ordeal and also in his statement to the sheriff.

Since his kidnapping and torture, Gomes says, he has suffered emotional distress and mental anguish as well as the injuries to his arm. He seeks damages for civil rights violations, assault, kidnapping and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

He is represented by Don O. Gleason Jr. of Tupelo.

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