The Associated Press
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A Scituate police officer accused of racial profiling realized before getting out of his cruiser that the car he had stopped for an inspection-sticker violation had out-of-state plates, but says he was unaware of the driver’s race.
Officer Kevin Pendergast testified in U.S. District Court on Thursday that he stopped the vehicle because he thought the plates could be stolen or on the wrong car.
The lawyer for plaintiff Jean Phillipe Barros has argued there was no reason to stop Barros for a missing Rhode Island inspection sticker because they are not required on cars registered outside the Ocean State.
Barros, who is of Cape Verdean descent, has sued for the May 2001 stop, claiming it violated his rights to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures and to equal protection under the law.
Det. Scott LeBeau of the Rhode Island State Police testified on Thursday that he had met up with Pendergast to transfer evidence and was talking with him when Barros drove by.
LeBeau said either he or Pendergast noticed and commented on the missing inspection sticker, and that he then stopped behind Pendergast’s cruiser to check on how he was doing after Pendergast pulled Barros over.
“I could hear a little bit of what was going on. I could tell it wasn’t going good,” LeBeau said.
LeBeau said he was not aware Barros was black until Pendergast came over to where the detective was standing and told him that Barros was complaining that the stop was racially motivated.
Barros ultimately received a ticket for not having the proper insurance and registration paperwork on hand. Although Barros called his sister, whose car he was driving, and located the paperwork, both sides agree Pendergast then told Barros he could not tear up a ticket he had already written.