Brandon Joseph Phillips v. Barron hall

Macon, Georgia personal injury lawyer represented the Plaintiff on a civil rights violation theory.



In June 2019, the Jones County Sheriff's Office and several

law enforcement agencies initiated Operation Lone Ranger, an ex-

tensive narcotics investigation that involved the wiretapping of

phones of several individuals believed to be involved in the distri-

bution and purchase of illegal drugs. Investigator Hall was the lead

investigator. One of the targets of the investigation was supplier

Hanad Abdulrahman. Over several months in late 2020, investiga-

tors intercepted communications from Abdulrahman's phone and

identified an individual named Brandon, who spoke with Ab-

dulrahman several times from a number ending in 5192. Abdulrah-

man and Brandon mentioned exchanging money through Cash

App, a mobile payment service, during several calls. Cash App links

a user's phone number with a username, known as a "cash tag,”

which allows an individual to find a Cash App user by using only a

phone number. Investigator Crystal Murphy, Hall's partner,

USCA11 Case: 24-1329024-13290 Opinion of the Court 3

searched Cash App for the 5192 number and discovered that it was

linked to the cash tag $Bphillips1993. This discovery led her to infer

that Brandon's full name was Brandon Phillips and that he was

born in 1993. Investigator Murphy communicated her finding to

Investigator Hall.



At some point, a second investigator, Robert Reece, who

also worked with Investigator Hall, took the information from In-

vestigator Murphy's Cash App search and identified Phillips. Alt-

hough it is unknown how Investigator Reece identified Phillips, his

handwritten notes included the name Brandon Phillips, "W/M,”

which Investigator Hall understood to mean white male, a full date

of birth, the 5192 number from which a Brandon had called Ab-

dulrahman, and a notation "C#21”. A surveillance log of Abdulrah-

man's calls, filtered by the 5192 number, recorded a session entry

numbered 21 that recounted an October 2020 call between Bran-

don and Abdulrahman, during which Brandon asked whether Ab-

dulrahman could meet in Pendergrass, a town in northeast Geor-

gia, because he "couldn't drive all that way.” Investigator Reece

also obtained a report of Phillips's criminal history through a search

of the Georgia Crime Information Center database. The report

provided information from Phillips's driver's license, including his

date of birth, address in Gainesville, a town in northeast Georgia,

and a photo that depicted a white male. The report also stated Phil-

lips's criminal history, including adjudications for driving without

a license, without a valid registration, and without insurance.

Motion for summary judgment granted.



Affirmed