{"id":65313,"date":"2026-04-30T21:53:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T01:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=65313"},"modified":"2026-04-30T21:53:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T01:53:44","slug":"wonder-if-grady-judd-will-report-this-one-out-with-all-the-pride-he-does-when-arresting-wrongdoers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/04\/30\/wonder-if-grady-judd-will-report-this-one-out-with-all-the-pride-he-does-when-arresting-wrongdoers\/","title":{"rendered":"Wonder if Grady Judd will report this one out with all the pride he does when arresting wrongdoers?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Survivor\u2019s Lawsuit Against Florida Sheriff Moves Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office criminalized a 12-year-old rape survivor for \u201clying\u201d and left her abuser free to assault her again. Ten years later, a federal judge has ruled she can sue over it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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A civil rights<\/strong> lawsuit against the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office in Florida overcame a tricky and nuanced legal hurdle this week in federal court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor Cadle was 12-years-old in 2016 when she told a sheriff\u2019s deputy that she had been sexually abused by her adoptive father, Henry Cadle. Instead of arresting the abuser, Deputy Melissa Turnage charged Taylor with filing a false police report. According to Taylor, her adoptive mother pushed her to plead guilty. As part of her probation, she was required to write apology letters to a sheriff\u2019s deputy and her abuser.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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After returning to her adoptive father\u2019s care, Taylor was raped again. But this time, she recorded the assault with her phone and collected key physical evidence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After reporting the abuse for a second time, Taylor\u2019s adoptive father was arrested and sentenced to 17 years in prison for sexual battery of a child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor had never shared her story publicly until Mother Jones<\/em> reporters connected with her in late 2023. After the story was published and was picked up by other outlets, including Rolling Stone<\/em><\/a> and People<\/em><\/a>, Taylor said no one from the Sheriff\u2019s Office ever reached out to apologize. The absence of a reaction didn\u2019t seem to align with a sheriff who has said that he would \u201cgo to the ends of the Earth<\/a>\u201d to arrest child sex abusers and that if his office makes a mistake, he would \u201cdress up, \u2019fess up, and fix it up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now 22, Taylor filed the suit last fall, alleging that the sheriff and his deputies violated her civil rights by conducting a biased investigation, falsely arresting her, and leaving her abuser free to rape her again. The suit was filed against Sheriff Grady Judd in his individual and official capacity, two detectives involved in the investigation, and her adoptive father.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judd\u2019s office directly responded to Taylor\u2019s claims, calling her lawsuit \u201cfrivolous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesperson for the Sheriff\u2019s Office wrote the following to the\u00a0Lakeland Ledger<\/em><\/a>\u00a0last year: \u201cUnfortunately, in today\u2019s highly litigious society, lawyers will file frivolous lawsuits for just about anything, including second-guessing nine-year-old criminal investigations, and then run to the news media attempting to get publicity for their lawsuit. In this case, our deputies did an extensive investigation and made deliberate and rational decisions based upon the information and evidence we had at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sheriff\u2019s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that Taylor had waited too long to sue. They argued that Florida\u2019s statute limits Taylor\u2019s civil rights claims to seven years, and she filed her suit nine years after she was falsely arrested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Taylor\u2019s lawyers presented a legal argument that\u2014to their knowledge\u2014hasn\u2019t been used in this district court. The seven-year time limit functions as a \u201cstatute of repose,\u201d preventing federal courts from applying it. Therefore, the court should consider the clock paused during the years she was a minor living with a guardian whose interests were working against hers. The team argued that under that interpretation, her deadline shifted to four years after she turned 18. Taylor filed within that window, the day before her 22nd birthday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, a Trump appointee, agreed. She ruled that most of Taylor\u2019s claims could go forward, including allegations that sheriff\u2019s detectives had maliciously prosecuted her and violated her right to bodily safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI felt pride in Taylor and a sense of relief,\u201d said attorney Brenda Harkavy. \u201cThere\u2019s a long road ahead, but the court has given her the opportunity to prove her case, and that itself feels like a step toward justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harkavy said this provides an extended timeline for other survivors to file suits if they were abused as children and continued to live under the care of someone whose interests were averse to theirs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Had the judge ruled against her argument, Harkavy said there would be no viable way to move forward with the claims against the Sheriff\u2019s Office and the detectives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suit will continue against Turnage, her supervisor William Rushing, and Judd in his official capacity. However, Mizelle dismissed claims against the sheriff personally, citing qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that shields public officials from liability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTaylor is a hero,\u201d Harkavy said. \u201cThe conduct that occurred here is horrific. It\u2019s incredibly important that [the Sheriff\u2019s Office] recognize what they imposed upon on Taylor, that they accept responsibility for what happened. None of this was Taylor\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott Wilder, director of communications for the Sheriff\u2019s Office, told Lakeland Gazette<\/em> that the department would \u201ccontinue to vigorously defend against the false and baseless allegations.\u201d When asked to elaborate on which allegations were false or baseless, Wilder did not respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Survivor\u2019s Lawsuit Against Florida Sheriff Moves Forward The Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office criminalized a 12-year-old rape survivor for \u201clying\u201d and left her abuser free to assault her again. Ten years… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAxOVwvMDdcL1NoZXJpZmYtR3JhZHktSnVkZC5qcGc_Zml0PTY0MCUyQzQ0OCZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IldvbmRlciBpZiBHcmFkeSBKdWRkIHdpbGwgcmVwb3J0IHRoaXMgb25lIG91dCB3aXRoIGFsbCB0aGUgcHJpZGUgaGUgZG9lcyB3aGVuIGFycmVzdGluZyB3cm9uZ2RvZXJzPyIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.eQL80oXWqwyvnbHejB8jh48uTvC1f5SHM-NeFFVrLaIMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMTlcLzA3XC9TaGVyaWZmLUdyYWR5LUp1ZGQuanBnIiwidHh0IjoiV29uZGVyIGlmIEdyYWR5IEp1ZGQgd2lsbCByZXBvcnQgdGhpcyBvbmUgb3V0IHdpdGggYWxsIHRoZSBwcmlkZSBoZSBkb2VzIHdoZW4gYXJyZXN0aW5nIHdyb25nZG9lcnM_IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.hPzG3XTFkXRPX6gcpDu1K1SffymhaMARFx33U39vE78MQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[14509],"class_list":["post-65313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-wonder-if-grady-judd-will-report-this-one-out-with-all-the-pride-he-does-when-arresting-wrongdoers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65315,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65313\/revisions\/65315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}