On this picture from Baton Rouge Police Division physique digicam video, officers work together with Jeremy Lee inside a warehouse in Baton Rouge on Jan. 9, 2023. Lee sued the division in August 2023 alleging officers abused him within the police warehouse nicknamed the “Courageous Cave.” Credit score: AP
On this picture from Baton Rouge Police Division physique digicam video, officers work together with Jeremy Lee in Baton Rouge on Jan. 9, 2023. Lee sued the division in August 2023 alleging officers abused him in a police warehouse nicknamed the “Courageous Cave.” Credit score: AP
On this picture from Baton Rouge Police Division physique digicam video, officers work together with Jeremy Lee in Baton Rouge on Jan. 9, 2023. Lee sued the division in August 2023 alleging officers abused him in a police warehouse nicknamed the “Courageous Cave.” Credit score: AP
The FBI stated Friday it has opened a civil rights investigation into allegations in current lawsuits that police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, assaulted drug suspects they detained in an obscure warehouse often known as the “Courageous Cave.”
In a single case, a person says he was taken to the warehouse and overwhelmed so severely he wanted hospital care earlier than being booked into jail. In one other, a lady claims she was strip-searched, with an officer utilizing a flashlight to scan her physique.
Because the first criticism was filed final month, town’s mayor has ordered the ability closed, the police division has disbanded its road crimes unit and an officer on the middle of the allegations — the son of a present deputy chief — resigned and was arrested on a easy battery cost.
FBI officers confirmed Friday that the company has opened an investigation primarily based on “allegations that members of the division might have abused their authority.”
This newest scandal provides to an extended checklist of corruption and misconduct allegations plaguing the Baton Rouge Police Division, which got here underneath vital scrutiny following the 2016 deadly police capturing of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old Black man. In 2021, a corruption probe into the division’s narcotics division led to prison expenses and inside self-discipline in opposition to officers accused of stealing medication from proof and mendacity on police stories.
Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul, who was employed to steer the company within the wake of Sterling’s killing, stated he was so involved over the current warehouse claims that he drove to the FBI’s New Orleans area division and requested them to overview the allegations.
“There have been some errors made,” Paul advised The Related Press, acknowledging that his inside affairs division initially failed to analyze. “I promise you we’ll resolve this.”
On this picture from Baton Rouge Police Division physique digicam video, officers work together with Jeremy Lee in Baton Rouge on Jan. 9, 2023. Lee sued the division in August 2023 alleging officers abused him in a police warehouse nicknamed the “Courageous Cave.” Credit score: AP
The latest lawsuit, which attorneys filed earlier this week on behalf of Ternell Brown, alleges officers pulled her over in June, took her to the identical “black website” and strip-searched her for “contraband.” She was launched with out expenses when officers concluded the prescribed drugs in her possession had been authorized.
Her attorneys wrote within the lawsuit that they’re nonetheless studying “the complete horror of what the road crimes unit did there. … Even those that weren’t overwhelmed on the torture warehouse, we now know, had been nonetheless sexually humiliated.”
The officer who resigned, Troy Lawrence Jr., has been the topic of a number of civil rights lawsuits and extreme power complaints in recent times. His father, Troy Lawrence Sr., was promoted to deputy chief in 2020 after commanding the road crimes unit, which glided by the acronym BRAVE, for Baton Rouge Space Violence Elimination.
It was not clear late Friday whether or not Lawrence Jr. had an lawyer who might touch upon his behalf. An electronic mail despatched to the police union in search of remark late Friday wasn’t instantly answered.
On this picture from Baton Rouge Police Division physique digicam video, officers work together with Jeremy Lee in Baton Rouge on Jan. 9, 2023. Lee sued the division in August 2023 alleging officers abused him in a police warehouse nicknamed the “Courageous Cave.” Credit score: AP
In line with a lawsuit filed final month, he repeatedly turned off and muted his physique digicam throughout his interactions with Jeremy Lee, the suspect who ended up hospitalized with damaged bones and different accidents. Contained in the warehouse, officers punched and kicked him whereas he screamed for assist, the lawsuit alleges. After he was violently interrogated and arrested, the one prison cost prosecutors pursued in opposition to Lee was resisting arrest.
Shortly after Lee’s lawsuit, Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston Broome ordered the warehouse closed, saying she was beforehand unaware of the ability’s existence.
“The severity of those allegations deeply issues me, particularly given the potential influence on the belief our neighborhood locations in us,” Broome stated.
Thomas Frampton, an lawyer representing each Lee and Brown, stated his workforce has heard from dozens extra folks alleging abuse contained in the warehouse they usually plan to file extra lawsuits.
“This sort of misconduct is so entrenched that folks had little motive to count on any sort of constructive change,” he stated, praising the FBI’s resolution to launch an investigation.
