By Alba Rosa
The Macon Telegraph
ATLANTA — Georgia appellate judges ruled this week that a Bibb County Jail deputy was immune to claims of negligence from the family of an inmate who died by suicide, court records show.
Dakota Smithers had died by suicide on Feb. 13, 2020, which prompted his parents, Stephen Smithers and Donna Smithers, to file a lawsuit against Ta’Tanisha Tweedy, the east wing control officer in charge of monitoring surveillance cameras at the time their son died, in November 2021. When a Bibb County State Court judge ruled that Tweedy was entitled to immunity, the Smithers family appealed the decision.
However, appellate judges affirmed the state court judge’s decision on Monday, according to court records.
The Smithers family argued in their appeal that Tweedy was not eligible for immunity, considering her job of monitoring the cameras was a ministerial duty rather than a discretionary duty. But the state court judge and the appellate judges ruled that Tweedy deserved immunity, saying she “had numerous other duties to perform, and her job required her to exercise deliberation and judgment about what she should do at any moment based on the situation,” according to the ruling.
Ultimately, Tweedy had “exercised her discretion to provide visual surveillance on the people in the cell block rather than video surveillance of the 50 camera views on screens,” the ruling said. What happened the day Dakota Smithers died?
Dakota Smithers, who was 25 at the time, was arrested for allegedly loitering in front of a Macon establishment in January 2020. When at the jail, he was transferred to the D block after a fight with another inmate and had received threats from other inmates that they were going to “get him,” according to the court ruling this week.
Tweedy noticed Smithers was attempting to harm himself on Feb. 13, 2020, and instructed another deputy to stop him. Later, while two deputies were passing out lunch, Tweedy watched the deputies instead of monitoring the cameras, according to court records filed by the Smithers family. While lunch was being handed out, another detained person threw urine toward Smithers’ cell.
He attempted suicide again due to that, according to the appeal filed by the family.
Tweedy went to get lunch around noon, which was around the time Dakota Smithers “appeared motionless,” according to the ruling from Monday. About 2 hours and 20 minutes later, deputies noticed Smithers’ body. He was pronounced dead after being taken to Navicent Health Medical Center.
“The question to be decided is whether a county jailer’s duty to monitor security video screens at her workstation was a ministerial or discretionary duty when she failed to notice an inmate hanging himself on camera for over two hours,” the appeal from the Smithers family argued. Dakota Smithers, who died by suicide in the Bibb County Jail in 2020. Photo provided. Why did the appellate judges side with Tweedy?
The immunity doctrine provides public officers with protection if a lawsuit is ever filed against them for discretionary actions taken within the scope of their official authority, as long as they are not done willfully, maliciously or in a corrupt manner, according to Georgia law. Public officers can only be liable if they negligently performed ministerial actions, with malice or intent to injure.
“The rationale for the immunity is to preserve the public employee’s independence of action without the fear of lawsuits and to prevent a review of his other judgment in hindsight,” the appellate judges said in their ruling.
A ministerial act is “one that is simple, absolutely, definite, raising under conditions admitted or proved to exist and requiring merely the execution of a specific duty” and “may be established by evidence such as written policy, an unwritten policy, a supervisor’s specific directive or a statute,” according to the ruling.
However, discretionary actions are those that are exercised by personal deliberation or judgment, “which in turn entails examining the facts, reaching reasoned conclusions and acting on them in a way not specifically directed,” the appellate judges said.
The appellate judges cite the Georgia Supreme Court for establishing that, even if an officer owes a duty of care and is required to do something, unless commanded by law, policy, or directive from their employer, the officer’s actions are still discretionary.
Deputies such as Tweedy operate under the general post orders, which Sheriff David Davis testified that they follow the orders “in the strictest sense,” and those working in the control booth were required to look after the inmates shown on the monitors. But he also said that “deputies are expected and authorized to exercise considerable judgment in determining how, when, and in what order or priority post activities are accomplished during the course of any duty shift,” according to Sheriff David Davis’ testimony, which was referenced in the appellate judges’ ruling.
“With these principles in mind, we conclude that Deputy Tweedy had a discretionary duty to monitor the facility through the video surveillance cameras,” the appellate judges ruled. What’s next?
The attorney for the Smithers family, Craig Jones, told The Telegraph that they have appealed the appellate judges’ ruling and it will be sent to the Georgia Supreme Court . Jones requested the Supreme Court judges to review the decision made by the appellate court judges and clarify “confusion over the difference between ministerial and discretionary duties,” according to their request.
“Whether the Court of Appeals erred by holding that a county jailer’s duty to monitor security video screens at her work station was a discretionary duty – and thus her failure to notice an inmate hanging in clear view for over two hours was a matter of discretion about whether to perform that duty – when instead, the court should have held that the duty itself was ministerial and there is a jury question about whether it was reasonable for her not to perform it,” Jones said in the court document.
—
© 2025 The Macon Telegraph (Macon, Ga.). Visit www.macon.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.