By Andrew Barksdale
The Fayetteville Observer, N.C.
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — A black Elizabethtown police officer has filed a lawsuit that accuses the Fayetteville Police Department of racially profiling and “harassing” and using “aggressive law enforcement” against African-American men.
Fayetteville Police Chief Harold Medlock described the allegations in the lawsuit of widespread racial discrimination as “the most ridiculous thing I have heard probably” during his three-year tenure.
Willie Thompson, who is an Elizabethtown police officer, filed the lawsuit Jan. 13 in Cumberland County Superior Court. Named as defendants are the city of Fayetteville, three Fayetteville police officers and the Walgreens Co.
Thompson’s lawsuit seeks a jury trial and damages in excess of $25,000. His lawyer is Allen Rogers, who has represented other families that have gone to court to accuse the police of excessive use of force.
City officials said they could comment little about the pending litigation.
“I more than look forward to having our day in our court and having all of the facts of this case exposed, to help folks understand exactly what happened that even ing,” Medlock said.
The lawsuit stems from a Dec. 2, 2014, incident outside a Walgreens store on Grove Street that Thompson, Rogers and police officials have previously reported to the media. Thompson was off duty using a Redbox video rental machine outside the store when three white Fayetteville police officers mistook him for a suspect of a prescription fraud case inside the pharmacy. Thompson was arrested and detained for about five minutes in a police car until officers realized the mistaken identity.
According to Thompson, the officers ignored his protests that he was an Elizabethtown officer and that he had his credentials in his car.
The lawsuit names as defendants the three officers: Ramon Herrera, Andrew Dickinson and Thomas Marshburn, who left the department a year ago.
It is routine for the city to represent police officers named in lawsuits in their official capacities.
According to the lawsuit, one of the officers - which one is not identified - stood next to Thompson at the Redbox and said, “What up, bro?” and immediately grabbed his wrist and began handcuffing him. The lawsuit says the other two officers “violently shoved” Thompson, “causing him great pain and discomfort.”
“They came up to me already in the position to handcuff me,” Thompson told The Fayetteville Observer in December 2014. “They didn’t approach me in any type of investigative manner.”
At the time, police officials said Thompson matched a description given to police by a pharmacist inside the Walgreens. When surveillance video showed that Thompson had never entered the store, he was released. Police officials said the officers apologized for the mistaken identity.
The lawsuit says Thompson suffered “mental and emotional distress in the form of severe bouts of crying, insomnia and depression both during and since the unlawful arrest/detention.”
Medlock said the incident “was fully investigated” by his department’s Internal Affairs unit, but the state’s personnel privacy laws prevent him from further comment about the officers.
The lawsuit accuses the police of excessive force, assault and battery, false imprisonment and negligent hiring, training and discipline of its sworn force.
At the time, police said the incident demonstrated the need for body-worn cameras. Since then, all patrol officers and sergeants have been equipped with such devices.
Copyright 2016 The Fayetteville Observer