Blackman sues Montgomery Co. over home arrest

A Montgomery County resident has filed a $2 million federal lawsuit against the county and a pair of sheriff’s deputies, alleging he was arrested for being the sole Black man at a home where officers responded to a disturbance call.

Deputies “deprived the plaintiff of his right to be free from false arrest and malicious prosecution,” the civil rights suit filed Nov. 16 alleges, calling their actions a violation of the Fourth and 14th Amendments of the Constitution.

“Montgomery County suffers from certain practices so persistent and widespread as to practically have the force of law,” the suit alleges. “Scores of other innocent African American men have suffered from these practices.”

The plaintiff is seeking $1 million each in actual and punitive damages. He is represented by Houston attorney Alexander Houthuijzen and is requesting a trial by jury.

The defendants have not yet been served in the case, said Amy Dunham, a spokeswoman for theMontgomery County Attorney’s Office. Dunham said the office does not comment on pending litigation.

The plaintiffwas taken into custody Jan. 6, 2019, on a charge of interfering with public duties, amisdemeanor; he spent a night in jail when he refused to allow the deputies into his home, according to the suit.

The suit contends the deputies did not have awarrant and, as far as the plaintiff knew, there was no reason for them to be there. An offense report noted an unfounded resisting arrest charge.

The suit argues the officers ignored the information on the dispatch call that was placed by the plaintiff’s girlfriend asking for his estranged wife, a white woman, to be removed fromthe property after she tried to enter, screaming and pounding on the door. The girlfriend, who was inside the house, identified and described the wife on the disturbance call according to the suit. It alleges the deputies overlooked her and “targeted” the plaintiff for being a Black man.

The suit accuses deputies of demanding the plaintiff exit the house, despite him not knowing that a call to police had been placed and the deputies not giving an explanation.

After speaking to the plaintiff’s wife and handcuffing his adult daughter outside the home for telling them they could not enter, the suit alleges, the deputies forced their way in through a back door that was ajar. Before the plaintiff’s arrest, he closed and locked his bedroom door to the deputies, reiterating that no crime had been committed and no person had been harmed, court documents show.

The deputies proceeded to knock downthe bedroom door to apprehend the plaintiff, Houthuijzen said.

The suit alleges the deputies revealed “implicit bias” in not pursuing charges against the plaintiff’s daughter, who told them they could not enter the home.

Additionally, the plaintiff’s estranged wife was the first person deputies came into contact with but was never detained as deputies failed to check the information on the police call made on her, the suit contends.

Because of those circumstances, the suit asserts, the plaintiff was denied equal protection.

Thesuit points to the deputies knowing through dispatch that the callerwas inside the home as proof that they failed to complete an investigation because they never asked the plaintiff’s girlfriend to step outside.

Montgomery County “failed to train, supervise and discipline its employees, amounting to a deliberate indifference to the plaintiff’s constitutional rights,” the suit reads.

The suit argues that the criminal affidavit against the plaintiff included “false testimony” and that the deputies “conspired” with supervisors to arrest him.

The deputies “acted intentionally … with reckless disregard for the truth. (They) arrested plaintiff based entirely on his skin color and not on facts or testimony of any credible person,” the suit states. “Montgomery County’s investigation of the plaintiff was so devoid of intelligent factfinding that it rose to the level of ‘bad faith’ prosecution.”

Criminal charges against the plaintiff were dismissed Feb. 4, 2019, according to the suit.

The lawsuit declares practices set forth in Montgomery County lead to the prosecution of innocent people based on their ethnicity and officers’ misunderstanding of the law. The county’s “willful blindness,” the suit states, blocks exculpatory evidence when prosecuting crimes.

The suit contends the county has conducted itself improperly in the use of force by officers, failed to investigate false-arrest allegations and failed to question witnesses at the scene or afterward.

“What it comes down to is the police shouldn’t be trying to cover up bad behavior by charging people with crimes,” Houthuijzen said Thursday.

The plaintiff has no criminal record, Houthuijzen said. Though the lawsuit describes the house as the plaintiff’s residence, Houthuijzen on Friday did not confirm whether the homeowner is his client or his client’s estranged wife.