*A Georgia woman plans to pursue legal action against the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office after being mistakenly arrested and detained for crimes allegedly committed by someone else, her legal representatives announced.
As 11Alive reports, attorneys say law enforcement was searching for Nikki Sledge, a 43-year-old white woman from Kentucky, but instead arrested Nickie Sledge, a 49-year-old Black woman living in Canton, Georgia. On December 21, 2024, Nickie Sledge was taken into custody and charged with two counts of abuse, neglect, or exploitation of disabled or elderly individuals.
The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office case report identifies the victim as the grandfather of Nikki Sledge’s husband. Warrants associated with the case listed a Kentucky address for the suspects—Nikki Sledge and her husband. The report referenced images and video footage of the alleged perpetrators, and a witness who was the victim’s long-time partner indicated the couple had relocated from Georgia to Kentucky.
Following her arrest, the Georgia resident was processed at Rockdale County Jail, where she underwent a strip search before transfer to the Cherokee County Detention Center. She was strip-searched a second time at the Cherokee facility and remained incarcerated for three days. Harry Daniels, representing Nickie Sledge, confirmed the charges were dismissed in February 2025.
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Her legal team’s statement described the experience as a traumatic ordeal involving humiliation, wrongful imprisonment, and public exposure through social media mugshot distribution. “This is a person that has no criminal record. She’s a hard-working taxpaying citizen, a law-abiding citizen, and all of a sudden, on a good day, happy day, spending time with your grandchild you get arrested, you get taken away, ripped,” said Daniels. “Your freedom of liberty is taken away, all because somebody didn’t do their job.”
The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office responded to media inquiries, stating: “We only recently became aware of this matter through media inquiries. At this time, we have not received any communication from Ms. Sledge or her attorney, nor have we been served with any civil papers related to this incident. However, we take this matter very seriously and are actively reviewing the situation to understand what occurred.”
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