Police Informant Sues Over Job Loss

Tort Law

Posted Dec 6, 2007, 04:47 pm CST
By Martha Neil

A confidential police informant in Atlanta who lost his job after his identity was revealed because of a furor of publicity over a botched drug raid has sued the city for damages.

Alex White contends in his federal lawsuit that he made about $25,000 annually from this work and seeks an unspecified amount of lost wages, damages for emotional distress and attorney fees from the city and its police department. He also alleges a "culture of corruption" within the police department, and says officers often lied to make cases, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution news article and editorial about White's claim.

"White detailed in the lawsuit how his life fell apart in the days after Kathryn Johnston was shot to death in her living room by Atlanta officers in a botched drug raid a year ago," the newspaper article reports, noting that Johnston was 92. "He said he was forced into hiding and he is still afraid of retribution from police and drug dealers he turned in."

However, the editorial expressed little sympathy for these claims. "Alex White should have told the truth, and Alex White did what he should have done," writes Steve Rose. But compensation for losing his job as a snitch because his face was on television, damaging his "credibility"? Cry me a river, Rose in effect says. "Those guys need a union."

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