Settlement reached in LSP handcuffing of Black teen

Louisiana State Police and a Black teen from Indiana who was handcuffed and detained in New Orleans’ French Quarter three years ago during a visit to study local architecture have settled a federal lawsuit, The Associated Press reported last week.

Lyle Dotson’s suit claimed he was illegally assaulted and detained by state troopers while visiting New Orleans as a 17-year-old high school senior. He initially lost on most of his claims but, in June, U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan ruled that he was entitled to a new trial due to racial discrimination in jury selection.

The son of a Ball State University architecture professor, Dotson was in the city in October 2015 with his father’s architecture class on a field trip.

During the class’ stop to see the interior courtyard at Pat O’Brien’s bar, Dotson’s son could not enter because he was too young. The teenager arranged to meet the group at the bar’s back entrance, but got lost.

He was stopped by troopers and, according to Morgan’s June opinion, he was handcuffed while they checked his driver’s license. When one trooper tried to take a photograph of Dotson after he was knocked to the ground, the teen did not consent and a struggle ensued. He was jailed briefly.

An assault case against Dotson was ultimately dismissed.

Terms of the settlement have not yet been made public.

Dotson’s lawyer on Tuesday praised his decision to pursue the lawsuit. Col Green, LSP superintendent, told The Associated Press Tuesday night the department stands by the troopers involved.

Reeves said the jury that first heard the case “found that Dotson sustained no damages” as a result of the encounter.

“The decision to settle this claim was a business decision to terminate continued costs associated with litigation,” Reeves’ emailed statement said. He said the settlement was not an admission of liability.

“Lyle demonstrated his integrity, courage and strength of character in his willingness to come back to New Orleans to challenge the oppressive state police tactics in court,” said Jim Craig, an attorney for Dotson.

Craig, Louisiana director of the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center, told The Associated Press in an email that Dotson is now a student in Ball State’s School of Fine Arts. He will use the money to pay for his education.

The Dotson case was one of several cited by justice advocates who say that the Louisiana State Police target and racially profile Black males in New Orleans. The justice advocates argue that the LSP should be held to the same federal standards for constitutional policing that the New Orleans Police Department is held to as it seeks to implement reforms that began with a federally mandated consent decree in August 2013.

This article originally published in the August 20, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.