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| Photo Credit: AP. |
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A Black pastor who was arrested by white police officers while watering the flowers of a neighbor who was out of town filed a federal lawsuit alleging the ordeal violated his constitutional rights and caused lingering problems including emotional distress and anxiety.
Michael
Jennings filed the lawsuit Friday night against three officers and the central
Alabama town of Childersburg requesting a jury trial and seeking an unspecified
amount of money.
Jennings’
lawyers held a news conference outside the Birmingham federal courthouse on
Saturday to discuss the lawsuit, and the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil
rights organization, and other groups planned a rally afterward at a downtown park.
“I’m here
for accountability, and I’m here for justice,” Jennings told the news
conference.
The suit
alleged the actions of Officers Christopher Smith and Justin Gable, Sgt. Jeremy
Brooks and the city violated rights protecting against unlawful arrest and
guaranteeing free speech. He cited multiple continuing problems including post
traumatic stress disorder and humiliation.
Childersburg
city attorney Reagan Rumsey didn’t return an email seeking comment.
Jennings,
56, was arrested in May after a white neighbor called 911 and said a “younger
Black male” and gold SUV were at a house while the owners — who are friends of
Jennings and had asked him to watch their home — were away.
Jennings
identified himself as “Pastor Jennings” but refused to provide identification
to the officers, who arrested him on a charge of obstructing government
operations after a 20-minute confrontation that included raised voices on both
sides.
Filed in
municipal court, the charge was dismissed within days at the request of the
then-police chief. Jennings’ attorneys last month released police body camera
video that was obtained following a records request to the city, located 55
miles (88 kilometers) southeast of Birmingham.
Benard
Simelton, president of the Alabama branch of the NAACP, said the officers who
arrested Jennings did “so many things” that weren’t in line with good community
policing tactics.
“These poor judgment decisions reflect poorly
on the type of training the Childersburg police officers receive … if they were
acting in accordance within police guidelines,” Simelton said in a statement.
While
Jennings could have filed a claim against the city seeking damages, attorney
Harry Daniels said that wasn’t done because the arrest was well within the time
frame allowed by law for a lawsuit.