A federal complaint was filed on Friday against three Alabama police officers and the city of Childersburg by Michael Jennings, a Black pastor who was detained in May while watering his distant neighbor’s plants at their request.
According to the complaint, Jennings suffered PTSD, mental anguish, and a loss of constitutional rights as a consequence of the arrest.
In a news conference on Saturday, Jennings referred to the cops who had detained him as having committed the crime with “impunity, assuming there would be no action done against them.” “I felt less than human. I didn’t feel much. Helpless as I felt. And it pained me.”
Jennings’ lawyer alleges in the lawsuit that Sgt. Jeremy Brooks, Christopher Smith, and Justin Gable of the Childersburg Police Department violated Jennings’ Fourth Amendment rights and acted in a manner that was “willfully, maliciously, in bad faith, and in reckless disregard of Pastor Jennings’” rights.
According to the complaint, “No reasonable officer in the positions of the individual defendants could have concluded there was plausible probable cause that Pastor Jennings committed the felony of obstruction of government, or any other criminal conduct, prior to his detention.”
According to the complaint, this event happened on May 22 when Jennings was watering his neighbor’s flowers while they were out of town.
According to the Associated Press, a White neighbour of Jennings phoned the police and stated that a Black man and a gold SUV were on the property of the house while they were gone.
According to the complaint, Jennings introduced himself to authorities as “Pastor Jennings” but declined to provide identification.
According to the lawsuit, the police then detained him on suspicion of disrupting official business.
According to the AP, the then-police chief requested that the case be dropped a few days after the event. Body camera video of the arrest was discovered by Jennings’ lawyers and made public last month.
In addition to a jury trial, Jennings is asking for an undisclosed sum of money.
Benard Simelton, president of the Alabama NAACP, said during the press conference on Saturday that it is crucial for Jennings to get justice in this situation so that others do not have similar experiences with police officers in the future.
He was able to go on with his life after this incident, according to Simelton.
But the reason we’re here right now is because there are several people around this nation who had a similar contact with police enforcement that turned out quite differently.