KINGWOOD — The county’s insurance has settled out of court with a North Carolina man who said Preston deputies damaged his car while searching it.
Brent Kipp, of Supply, N.C., filed a civil suit in Preston Magistrate court in August, asking for $4,047.16 to repair the car. The suit was dismissed, at his request, on Tuesday.
Preston Administrator Kathy Mace said the county is insured through the West Virginia Counties Risk Pool, which indicated it settled the claim for about $4,000, she said.
“In some cases the insurance just pays out right. We don’t pay any of that. That was the case here,” Mace said Wednesday.
Preston Chief Deputy P.A. Pritt said the insurance company didn’t speak with anyone in that office about the circumstances of the search, and they were unaware of the settlement until contacted by The Dominion Post.
That’s, “Not fair to the officers, not fair to the citizens,” Pritt said of the case being settled without an investigation.
Chris Carey, administrator of the insurance program, said he could not comment on the settlement.
The newspaper called Kipp, who asked to be called back at a specific time. When that call was made, it went to a full mailbox. Two subsequent calls were answered in Spanish by an automatic reply.
Kipp said deputies damaged his 2017 Nissan Sentra while searching it for drugs after a traffic stop July 19 when he allegedly didn’t stop at a stop sign near Masontown. He was given a warning citation for running the sign.
No drugs were found in the car. Kipp was cited for possession of less than 15 grams of marijuana, which he said was in his pocket. He pleaded guilty and was given six months unsupervised probation and told to pay $166.25 court costs.
Kipp included photos of the alleged damage with the suit and a repair shop’s estimate of the cost to fix the damage. Notes with the photos include one that said, “from broken condensator water flooding in car causing mold.”
Other notes said the mold had to be “professionally removed.” The center console was broken, unstable and moving, according to another notation. The head liner had to be replaced because it was the only access to a broken wire harness in the ceiling, according to the shop estimate.
