EPHRATA, Wash – A man arrested and falsely accused of making threats to kill is suing the Grant County Sheriff’s Office and others for accusing him of planning a mass shooting.
Deputies stopped Jonathan Moody in the parking lot of the Gorge Amphitheater in August 2022. Witnesses told deputies he was acting suspiciously and was seen taking two guns out of his car.
Employees of Live Nation, which operates the concert venue, said they received reports of a man walking around with firearms.
In a federal lawsuit filed earlier this month, Moody said he wasn’t attending the concert, but was bringing items to his sister who was there. Moody says he carries firearms for self-protection and has a concealed weapons permit.
Moody says he got out of his vehicle to walk the 400 yards to meet his sister and had one pistol on his waistband, one on his hip.
According to the lawsuit, Live Nation did not have any signs posting that firearms were not allowed.
The lawsuit says Moody was initially approached by two Live Nation security guards yelling, “Don’t Move! Don’t Move!”
The security guards detained him, without resistance.
According to the lawsuit, the security guards then alerted two sheriff’s deputies and “said they had detained a suspected ‘shooter’.”
Deputies arrested Moody, initially charging him with making threats to kill. He was arraigned four days later and the charges were modified to unlawful carrying of a weapon and possession of a dangerous weapon.
The lawsuit then notes that the Grant County Sheriff’s Office issued a news release, saying that Moody was planning a mass shooting at the Gorge and was apprehended before he could do so.
The lawsuit says the sheriff’s office eventually retracted that information, but not before media outlets reported it.
Moody and his sister filed a lawsuit in federal court, alleging false arrest, defamation/slander/libel and the intentional inflection of emotional distress.
They name as defendants the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, the Grant County Sheriff and individual employees of the department and Live Nation.
The suit was initially filed in Grant County Court, but refiled in U.S. District Court this month.
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