Georgia Official Loses Bid to Discharge False Imprisonment Debt

A former Georgia county commissioner who wrongly accused two women of stealing his wallet is unable to use bankruptcy to avoid a state court judgment debt for causing their false imprisonment, an appeals court ruled.

A Georgia bankruptcy court correctly declined Stanley Watson’s effort to discharge a jury verdict debt to two women that he “willfully and maliciously” caused to be wrongfully confined by local police during a 2012 incident at a Decatur, Ga., bar, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled Monday.

Watson, who at the time of the incident was a DeKalb County Commissioner, said ...