Blount County Sheriff’s Office Deputy James Patty had a problem – another deputy who sidelined as a street fighter had just admitted he slammed a man’s head into concrete, audio of the July 2016 incident shows.

That man – Anthony Michael Edwards – was dying on that concrete from a skull fracture and seven broken ribs, and Patty told a dispatcher he was “hoping” Edwards was an accused felon wanted by someone in Blount County or neighboring Knox and Sevier counties, a lawsuit showed.

He wasn’t. Edwards, a 25-year-old Pigeon Forge father of two, wasn’t a felon at all.

“Can you look and see if it’s a felony? It’s kind of important,” Patty told the dispatcher, who gave him the bad news. “OK. I was kind of hoping it was a felony.”

Lawsuit claims 'culture of violence'

A civil rights lawsuit filed on behalf of Edwards’ children and mother by civil rights attorney Troy Bowlin in U.S. District Court cites those recordings as exhibits. It also cites them as proof of Edwards’ survivors' contention Patty and another supervisor coached Deputy Jerry Burns on how to cover up his actions.

The lawsuit seeks more than $150 million in compensatory and punitive damages against Burns, who is a competitive martial arts fighter, Patty, Sheriff Jim Berrong and Blount County government.

The legal action accuses Berrong of a pattern of condoning and participating in cover-ups of bad and, sometimes, fatal behavior of deputies.

Patty was fired in October 2016 after he was nabbed in an online sting in which he traveled to North Carolina to meet what he thought would be a 14-year-old girl for sex. He is awaiting sentencing in that case.

Sign Up:Get breaking news text alerts

Blount County attorney Craig Garrett was not immediately available for comment on the lawsuit filed in Edwards' death.

The audio recordings cited in the lawsuit show Edwards was left on the concrete for more than half an hour without medical treatment. It would be an hour more before he was taken to a hospital. When Patty arrived and found out Burns had slammed Edwards’ head on the concrete, he told a dispatcher to check Blount, Sevier and Knox Counties for outstanding warrants on Edwards.

When the dispatcher found a warrant on file in Sevier County, the audio showed, Burns and other law enforcers “cheered,” some saying, “yay.” The mood changed quickly, though, when the dispatcher said it was for a misdemeanor offense.

Edwards was wanted on a warrant for violation of probation on charge in a domestic violence incident.

Body cam shuts off at crucial time

According to the lawsuit, Burns didn’t know Edwards was wanted at all when he saw Edwards and another man walking in the area of Patterson Road near its intersection with Winchester Drive. It was dark, and the hour late for walking – around 1 a.m. Edwards was unarmed but ran. Burns chased him on foot and tried to shoot him with a stun gun. Burns tackled Edwards.

Burns was wearing a body camera. The video showed the pair struggling, with Edwards repeatedly asking Burns to stop hitting him and telling Burns he was having a seizure, according to the audio cite in the lawsuit. At some point in the struggle, Burns picked Edwards up and slammed him head-first onto a concrete surface, the lawsuit alleged.

After that, Burns’ body camera stopped filming, according to the lawsuit.

But the microphone was still working. So, too, was Patty’s equipment when he arrived a bit later.

“Jerry slammed him; you knew that right?” Patty asked the unidentified supervisor.

The supervisor responded, “Was it a slam or a drop?”

That same supervisor was recorded asking Burns, “Did you slam him or drop him?” Burns said he “slammed” him, the lawsuit stated, citing the recording.

The supervisor had this advice: Be consistent in what you say and what you write when investigators show up.

Then, the audio went silent for four minutes. It’s unclear why.

Cover-up alleged

When Burns’ microphone began to record again, Burns could be heard repeating his account of a fight with Edwards and minimizing Edwards’ injuries. Edwards, meanwhile, remained on the concrete – dying. He would stay there more than an hour and even after paramedics had arrived. He was flown to the University of Tennessee Medical Center and died.

The lawsuit alleges both Burns and Patty lied in use of force reports and formal interviews. Those lies, the lawsuit alleges, were fed “to the media and the public at large to create ‘fake news’ so that the public and citizens of Blount county could justify in their minds the actions of the officers.”

Pointing to the dozens of civil rights lawsuits filed against BCSO over excessive force claims, some deadly, in recent years, attorney Bowlin alleges the agency has a “culture of violence” long ignored by Berrong and the county itself.

“Berrong knew from past litigation, complaints and incidences that the deputies in his department routinely used excessive force in apprehending and/or taking into custody suspects and often engaged in the gratuitous infliction of pain and punishment,” Bowlin wrote.

“Not only did Berrong not discourage such excessive and/or gratuitous violence, he himself actually participated in it, thus sending the message to his subordinates that such conduct was acceptable on the job,” the attorney wrote.

Edwards’ death was ruled a homicide by the Knox County Medical Examiner’s Office. His death certificate stated that he died from “blunt force injuries of the head.”

Burns was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing.

Bowlin contends in the lawsuit Burns might have faced prosecution if he hadn’t been coached to lie.

“It strikes at the very heart of our judicial system to allow law enforcement officers to lie in their reports to justify their unconstitutional actions,” he wrote. “Such conduct is outrageous and must be punished.”