By Cleve Wiese

Published: May 9, 2008

Lawyers for an Augusta County Sheriff’s Department deputy are expected to ask a judge today to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a Lyndhurst man the deputy shot while serving a search warrant three years ago.
Following a February hearing, the victim, Jon Painter, 45, amended an earlier complaint against the sheriff’s department itself to focus on Deputy Gary Taylor, the officer who pulled the trigger.
Taylor was helping to serve a search warrant at Painter’s home on Feb. 22, 2005, when he fired the shot, hitting Painter in the left thigh.
Authorities arrested Painter the following day on charges of possessing and distributing methamphetamine and possessing a firearm while possessing drugs. He was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison. The term was suspended, or reduced, by eight years and six months. Painter, who is now free, is appealing the conviction.
Painter says he was retrieving a soft drink from his car when Taylor fired, according to court documents.
Taylor’s attorney, Carlene Johnson, who also represented the Sheriff’s Department, has asked a judge to dismiss the case.
Taylor, she said in the February hearing, is entitled to sovereign immunity, a protection against legal liability extended to government entities and their employees. Painter’s wound was “incurred as a result of his own unlawful or immoral acts,” according to her motion to dismiss the case.