‘The system failed’: Settlement paid in wrongful arrest case in Bossier

By Kristy Kepley-Steward

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    BENTON, Louisiana (KTBS) — An out-of-court, multi-million-dollar settlement has been reached in a wrongful-arrest-and-prosecution lawsuit brought by a former business executive who spent years falsely accused of committing a string of deer-camp vandalisms and arsons in Bossier Parish.

Todd Phillips and his family reached the settlement with the Bossier Sheriff’s Office and the Bossier District Attorney’s Office, which investigated and prosecuted Phillips. The sheriff’s attorney, Glenn Langley, and the Phillips’ lawyer, Nichole Buckle, would not disclose terms of the settlement, but another person familiar with the case said $2 million of the settlement was to be paid by the sheriff’s office and its insurance company and $100,000 to be paid by the District Attorney’s Office.

Phillips spent five years under investigation and prosecution for a string of vandalisms, arsons and intimidations targeting deer-hunting leases west of Benton. The case against him imploded after a new sheriff’s investigator looked at the case and concluded Phillips had been framed by a neighbor who planted evidence and fooled authorities into believing Phillips was the perpetrator.

“The criminal case deeply damaged our family; it almost broke us,” Phillips, 60, said after the settlement was reached. “The system failed; the investigation was weak and not objective and there were simply no checks and balances. They were only interested in prosecuting one person, regardless of the evidence.”

The sheriff’s office and the district attorney, in agreeing to settle the case, did not admit fault.

Langley said payment of the settlement with the sheriff’s office came from an insurance policy the department carries. He said he could not recall the amount of the policy’s deductible.

Phillips and his family had a horse farm outside Benton when he came under suspicion. Phillips was chief executive officer of Shreveport’s Frymaster, a worldwide supplier of commercial fryers, and the company stood behind him while he was accused.

During that time, Phillips and his family sold their property and moved to Marshall, Texas, where they have a horse farm. Phillips retired from Frymaster last year.

A man who lived near Phillips was eventually determined to have committed the crimes and was arrested in 2018. Charges against Phillips were dropped.

That man, Gary Wilson, now 59, pleaded guilty in Bossier District Court last spring, received an eight-year suspended sentence and agreed to forfeit $150,000 of the cash bond he posted after his arrest.

The settlement of Phillips’ suit is the latest chapter in a bizarre case involving dozens of crimes between 2010 and 2017 that targeted mostly deer hunters and their camps and leases. Camps and deer stands were burned and vandalized, spikes were planted in roads, dogs were killed and shots were fired into a residence and into a deer hunter’s pickup. Three families who lived in the area wound up moving because they feared for their safety.

Authorities said Wilson, who lived at the end of a road where much of the tormenting of hunters occurred, planted evidence to frame Phillips, including items left at crime scenes with Phillips’ name on them. After a new investigator looked at the case, the investigation of Phillips was discredited and Wilson went from perceived victim of vandalism to accused perpetrator.

Also arrested for complicity was Wilson’s son, who died along with his mother in 2018 in what authorities said was a joint suicide leap from a bridge over the Red River.

Gary Wilson moved to south Arkansas after his arrest.

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