CALDWELL COUNTY, N.C. -- A man once charged with murdering his wife and stuffing her body in a truck toolbox has filed a new, amended lawsuit against the Caldwell County Sheriff's Office.
Jerry Anderson is seeking more than $100,000 in damages from malicious prosecution, false arrest and fabrication of evidence as well as other claims for relief.
The civil lawsuit names witnesses, including restaurant and motel workers, who say they saw Anderson's wife, Emily, alive days after investigators say she was murdered on her dairy farm in Sawmills.
One witness says he saw her with a tall, dark-haired man at a convenience store in Caldwell County the day she went missing and says he knew it was her because he recognized a bumper sticker on her truck.
Investigators say Emily Anderson was murdered Dec. 29, 2005. Medical examiner reports put the date of death between Jan. 4 and Jan. 6, 2006. Disregarding a scientific timeline is another allegation against the Caldwell County Sheriff's Office.
Caldwell County investigators claimed Jerry Anderson shot his wife, stuffed her body into her truck's toolbox, and then dumped the truck in a Waffle House parking lot in Duncan, S.C.
Motives, authorities said, included Emily Anderson inquiring about a divorce weeks before her death, plus a new life insurance policy. They claimed Jerry Anderson used a front-end loader to stuff his wife's body in the tool box.
Anderson's trial in 2007 ended in a hung jury. Eleven out of 12 jurors favored acquittal. Prosecutors dropped the first-degree murder charge and their attempt to put Anderson on death row.
Anderson's lawsuit, filed in federal court, says investigators had no case against him but pursued him anyway. Anderson initially filed a lawsuit in state court, but rescinded that lawsuit in favor of this one, which is longer, names more defendants and includes more details.
There aren't many cases where the evidence was this clear that someone else must have done it, said attorney Robert Elliot, who represents Anderson.
The suit names witnesses who claim they saw Emily Anderson alive with another man in Duncan, getting out of a car days after investigators say she was killed. The lawsuit also claims a witness saw someone -- not Jerry Anderson -- accessing Emily's truck in Duncan.
It also claims some physical evidence was contaminated, other evidence wasn't tested and several leads were ignored completely.
The lawsuit claims investigators fabricated some evidence, which lab tests said didn't exist.
NewsChannel 36 learned prosecutors offered Anderson a plea deal, going from death row to just six years in prison. He already spent 18 months in jail awaiting trial.
Anderson rejected the plea.
There is a killer of Emily Anderson who hasn't been identified and hasn't been found because the law enforcement agency put all of their resources, which were tremendous, in support of trying to prove a theory that wasn't there, Elliot said.
The Caldwell County Sheriff's Office doesn't comment about active lawsuits.
Prosecutors reserve the right to charge Anderson again. Elliot says he doubts that will ever happen due to a clear lack of evidence.
