The son of a female police officer has launched a civil action against the State Government after he was arrested near Shepparton as part of the manhunt for suspected serial killer Desi Freeman and his family’s property was searched by dozens of police officers.
Jeremy Sloan, 32, and his partner Sarah Naylor, 30, were stopped and arrested at gunpoint near Shepparton on October 1. Heavily armed police then swooped on the parents’ remote home in Goomalibee, about 15 kilometers from Benalla.
Ms Sloan’s father Brian, 63, was detained while police searched Mr Freeman’s family home while a police helicopter hovered over the property, according to a complaint filed in the Supreme Court of Victoria. Jeremy Sloan was then taken to Shepparton Police Station and questioned.
Mr Freeman went missing on August 26 after allegedly shooting and killing Senior Constable Vadim de Waart Hottart, 35, and Senior Constable Neil Thompson, 59, but his family has denied any connection with him.
The officers involved in the arrest and search, who are not named in court documents, have been charged with assault, false imprisonment and failure to exercise reasonable care.
The three plaintiffs, Jeremy, Brian Sloan and Naylor, will now seek compensation, saying the incident caused significant emotional trauma. Jeremy Sloan’s mother, a Victoria Police officer, was in Darwin at the time of the attack but is not a party to the lawsuit.
Jeremy Sloan told this masthead that the attack had made life difficult for his mother.
“My mother is a member of Victoria Police and this not only affects her personally, but also makes it very difficult for her to continue working in an organization that she has always respected and supported,” he said.
He said their ordeal began near the town of Andara, about 25km from Shepparton, where they were forced off the road by an unmarked police car.
At gunpoint, Sloan was ordered to lie face down and restrained with zip ties, before being told by officers that he was under arrest for harboring a fugitive.
Sloan claims he has never met Freeman, is not affiliated with the Sovereign Citizens Movement and has no criminal record.
When Sloan was escorted back to his family’s farm by police, he realized the magnitude of the police response.
“We saw multiple ambulances, helicopters and about 20 to 30 police vehicles,” he said.
“As we drove up the driveway, we were faced with a twisted and damaged gate, completely unable to comprehend what had happened. That’s when Sarah was told that she believed Desi Freeman was on our property.”
The family was acquitted the next day, but police had no explanation for the attack, which drew widespread media attention to the small town, population 91, according to the 2021 census.
Sloan said he recognized the need for police to respond quickly to dynamic situations, but disputed the accuracy of the information police relied on.
“We’re holding people accountable so that no one else has to go through what we went through,” Sloan said. “At that moment, I felt like my sense of security had been stripped away in a way I can’t describe in words.”
Jeremy King, lead lawyer for Robinson Gill, who is representing the family, said he was perplexed by the police response to the matter.
“This is one of the strangest police operations I’ve seen in a long time,” Dr. King said. “This family still does not know why they were arrested or why their house was searched.
“Given its scale and cost, you would think police would have a clear justification for the operation, but we are still in the dark.”
A Victoria Police spokesperson said police had no warrants to execute.
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