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Federal courthouse in Huntsville (Al.com file)

HUNSTVILLE, Alabama – Joanna Atnip was on her back porch in Hazel Green last summer, arguing with her adult daughter when two Madison County Deputies came through the fence.

Atnip says the deputies ordered her to allow the daughter into the house to get her belongings. She refused. She claims deputies without warning forced her to the ground and clapped her in handcuffs.

"There was no legal justification for this arrest to be taking place," attorney Stan Morris told the judge during a hearing in Huntsville this morning, saying his client was slammed to the ground by two men, "all the while her clothing has been stripped off her."

Atnip was charged with resisting arrest and domestic violence. The charges were dropped, said Morris, after "rogue deputies" twice failed to appear in court to testify.

Atnip in June sued Deputy Jake Church and Deputy Ryan Koch in federal court.

"We're going to find out about this Deputy Church," Morris told U.S. District Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala today. "This wasn't his first picnic. You may have read about it in the paper."

Church was also named in the "revenge beatdown" suit filed in March on behalf of Robert Bryant, a Tennessee mechanic. Bryant identified Church as the one who pulled him over.

Madison County in July paid Bryant $625,000 to drop the suit.

The FBI is now investigating that case.

Atnip also sued Madison County Sheriff Blake Dorning for negligence.

"Defendant Sheriff Blake Dorning recklessly and/or wantonly supervised his officers in the use of excessive force," reads the suit, which argues Dorning "failed to properly sanction or discipline his officers."

Morris this morning argued that Dorning allowed deputies to go undisciplined until there is a federal indictment. Morris told the judge that Dorning employs Church as a training officer. "He trains other deputies in this county how to behave," said Morris in court.

However, attorney George Royer argued there was little basis to sue Dorning, as sheriffs are immune under the Alabama constitution. Plus, Royer told the judge: "It is undisputed that the sheriff was not present at the time of the arrest."

The judge agreed, and dismissed the negligence claim against Dorning. Although, she allowed claims related to the deputies, including allegations of excessive force and failure to protect, to go forward.

Royer suggested deputies, who function as "the alterego of the sheriff," are also entitled to the same immunity. But attorneys for Atnip argued that the deputies had no reason to be on Atnip's property on July 28, 2013, and were acting beyond the scope of their office.

The suit states that Atnip's daughter, Kathryn Atnip, had not lived at the house for two years, but she had left personal items there during a recent visit.

"Plaintiff repeated to Defendant Deputies that Kathryn Atnip did not live there and did not have her permission to enter the home on that day, but could return the following day."

"Faced with what was very clearly a civil matter, with no court order, no evidence of a dangerous situation, crime in progress, domestic violence, or an emergency, Defendant Deputies then instructed Kathryn Atnip to go through the Plaintiff and to enter the residence and get what she claimed were her belongings," reads the suit.

As the daughter walked toward the house to get her stuff, the suits says, the mother raised her arms with palms out to block the way. Atnip alleges the two men then violently slammed her to the ground and "caused her tank top to be pulled down embarrassingly exposing Plaintiff's bare breasts to Defendant Deputies and witnesses present."

The suit says Atnip suffered "abrasions, contusions and trauma to her body" and she was "permanently injured." The specific injuries are not stated in the suit. Atnip also claims she was humiliated, caused to pay for criminal lawyers to fight the "malicious charges" and lost time and income.