Police

Citizens File Federal Lawsuit Over ‘Blacklist’; City Declines to Specify Criteria

Four of the 81 people whose names were added without their knowledge to a list of people requiring a police escort in City Hall filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday afternoon against the city. The court action came only hours after city officials declined to release the criteria for putting people on the list, citing a state law allowing confidentiality of security measures in government buildings. The plaintiffs named in the lawsuit are Elaine Blanchard, who officiated one of the first same-sex weddings in Memphis after a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling; Mid-South Peace and Justice Executive Director Bradley Watkins and coordinator Paul Garner; and activist Keedran “TNT” Franklin. The lawsuit — which you can read in its entirety here — seeks …


Melania Trump Just Removed All References of Her Plan to Profit From Being First Lady From a Lawsuit

Melania Trump has resubmitted her defamation lawsuit against the Daily Mail’s website for wrongly reporting rumours that she worked as a high-end escort in the 1990s. But this time the paperwork has removed references to her plans to monetise her position as first lady. The former model is suing Mail Media Inc for $150 million (£120 million) in damages after The Mail Online alleged that her …


ACLU Files Lawsuit Against City of Milwaukee Over Police Department’s Stop-And-Frisk Program

The American Civil Liberties Union in Wisconsin is alleging in a lawsuit that Milwaukee police are operating a stop-and-frisk program mostly targeting black and Latino residents who are often detained without cause. The lawsuit being filed in federal court Wednesday is on behalf of six black and Latino plaintiffs who say they’ve been stopped once or multiple times without a …


ACLU to Challenge Milwaukee Police’s Stop-And-Frisk Policies

The Milwaukee Police Department will need to defend its controversial use of stop-and-frisk policies in light of a class-action lawsuit lodged by the American Civil Liberties Union, according to a report. The nonprofit is representing Charles Collins, 67, and numerous others in the Wisconsin city, with a class-action case accusing the police force led by Chief Edward Flynn of racially profiling …


Lawsuit: Black Cop Told to Style Hair Like White Officer’s

A New Jersey police officer has sued her department, saying she endured years of racial and gender discrimination that included supervisors telling her to style her hair like a white officer’s. The lawsuit filed by Hillside Sgt. Qiana Brown, who is black, claims she has improperly been denied a promotion to lieutenant.


Lawsuit Challenges Alaska Civil Seizures, Search Warrants

A lawsuit filed against a drug task force in southeast Alaska challenges the seizure of personal property by law enforcement and seeks more transparency in the search warrant process. Petersburg Borough residents Danny Thompson and Greg Richeson are suing the borough and Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs, a task force involving Alaska State Troopers and police …



Baltimore City to Pay $300,000 in Anthony Anderson Death Lawsuit

Baltimore’s spending panel is set to approve a $300,000 settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Anthony Anderson, who died after he was tackled by a police officer in 2012. Officers stopped Anderson, 46, on Sept. 21, 2012, in a vacant lot when the officers said he failed to respond to commands, prompting one officer to use a “bear hug” maneuver, according to according to …


3 Holyoke Police Officers Accused in Lawsuit of Beating Boy, 12, Unconscious

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Hampden Superior Court in Springfield, three Holyoke police officers were accused of beating a 12-year-old boy unconscious after responding to a shots-fired call in 2014. “Rather than searching and questioning the boy the officers assaulted him without cause, inflicting a concussion, deviated nasal septum, multiple abrasions and contusions to the scalp, …


Grand Rapids Hopes to Speed Up Officer Firings With Federal Lawsuit

Grand Rapids is hoping a federal judge will speed up the process of firing three officers implicated in the case of a former assistant prosecutor’s wrong-way crash in November. The city filed a lawsuit in federal court Friday, Feb. 3, asking a judge to settle a dispute between the city and its police unions. The disagreement regards five phone calls between the officers — …