Lawsuit accuses trooper of using excessive force
18th June 2018 · 0 Comments
A federal lawsuit filed June 10 by a New Orleans man accuses a Louisiana State trooper of using excessive force during his arrest. Zachary Terrell, 29, says in court papers that he was knocked off his bike by a stun gun then struck repeatedly during a drug arrest in the French Quarter.
Terrell, who later pleaded guilty, says he was kicked and stomped by a state trooper with a history of aggressive arrests.
The lawsuit seeks financial damages from Trooper Troy Pichon and other members of the Louisiana State Police.
Terrell’s federal lawsuit comes on the heels of several others involving young Black men in the Central Business District. One such lawsuit involved a Black college student who says he was knocked to the ground and harassed by state troopers while visiting New Orleans with his father and several other students to study local architecture. Another such lawsuit involved a young man who said he was accosted and detained by state troopers who approached him while he was checking phone messages outside his barber shop in the CBD.
Famed New Orleans trumpeter Shamarr Allen also said he was detained and roughed up by state troopers who followed him as he headed home after a late-night gig in the French Quarter. Finally, two Black teenagers – Ferdinand Hunt and Sidney Newman – said they were assaulted by about a dozen plainclothes state troopers while waiting in the French Quarter after a Carnival parade for NOPD Officer Betty Hunt, one of the teen’s mother, to bring them something to eat. That encounter was captured on camera and the families of both teens filed a federal complaint.
While the Landrieu administration tried to distance itself from the incident involving the two teens by saying that state troopers were responsible and not NOPD officers, a white female officer could clearly be seen on the surveillance video instructing the state troopers to approach the two Black teens.
The MacArthur Justice Center, which handled several of the other aforementioned cases, is taking the lead on this effort to raise awareness of questionable tactics used by state troopers in their efforts to provide support for the severely undermanned NOPD.
“The law can be enforced without using brutality in the course of a stop or an arrest,” Jim Craig, a member of the non-profit law firm, told The New Orleans Advocate. “We are without a doubt looking very closely at the methods of the Louisiana State Police in the City of New Orleans.”
The lawsuit alleges that on the night of June 17, 2017 Terrell met a friend after finishing a shift at Tujague’s Restaurant. The friend is white.
After observing the two men interact, Troopers Troy Pichon and Jeffrey Roach zeroed in on Terrell. No effort was reportedly made to talk to the white friend.
According to the lawsuit, Terrell had earphones on as he got on his bike and began to ride away. At the intersection of St. Peters and Burgundy streets, Trooper Pichon reportedly used the stun gun on Terrell, sending him crashing to the ground.
The lawsuit alleges that while Terrell lay defenseless on the ground, Trooper Pichon kicked him in the head and stomped on his fare. Terrell was reportedly then handcuffed and dragged across the asphalt by Pichon while Trooper Roach did nothing.
Terrell was arrested and eventually charged with possession with intent to distribute heroin, possession of heroin, distribution of a Schedule IV drug, possession with intent to distribute a Schedule IV drug and resisting an officer.
Terrell eventually pleaded guilty to possession, distribution and resisting arrest charges in August and was sentenced to seven years in prison as a habitual offender. He is serving his sentence at the Bossier City jail.
As a result of the encounter with Trooper Pichon, Terrell required seven stitches around his right eyebrow and suffered facial swelling and bruising, bruises to his nose and upper lip and wounds on both his wrists as well as his elbow and knee.
The lawsuit says Terrell also has suffered from nightmares, anxiety and “increased distrust of law enforcement.”
The lawsuit details a laundry list of questionable tactics used by Trooper Pichon, including putting a neck hold on a “suspicious” person in June 2016, using a stun gun on a man who took a “defensive stance” in November 2015
and shocking a suspect in the back in May 2017.
In January, a court found that the State Police violated the Fourth Amendment when they arrested the Black college student in the French Quarter visiting New Orleans with his father and college classmates in 2015. But the jury awarded Lyle Dotson no money and rejected separated claims that the LSP racially profiled him.
Jim Craig said that the Louisiana State Police is being compensated by the City of New Orleans for bolstering the undermanned NOPD and should be held to the same standards of the troubled police department, which has been under a federally mandated consent decree since August 2013.
The NOPD consent decree aims to bring the police department up to federal standards for constitutional policing.
“They are being compensated through the cooperative endeavor agreement with the City of New Orleans, and they should be accountable to some degree to the residents and the citizens of New Orleans,” Craig told The New Orleans Advocate.
“We don’t fall under the consent decree,” Trooper Melissa Matey, a spokesperson, said past week.
This article originally published in the June 18, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
