December trial date set in Memphis physician’s lawsuit against Southaven

A jury will settle a dispute between a Memphis couple and Southaven police over a 2015 traffic stop, according to court filings.

Memphis physician Marcia Bowden and her husband, Ira Marche, will get a jury trial in U.S. District Court in Oxford in December, court records show. Judge Neal Biggers will hear the case, scheduled to begin Dec. 4 and expected to last two to three days with 10-12 witnesses.

The decision to take the case to trial grew out of a January case management conference. The most recent court filing, a couple weeks ago, shows that the plaintiffs have made their initial disclosures in preparation for trial.

The dispute stems from a Sept. 7, 2015, traffic stop in Southaven. Two Southaven officers, Sgt. Brett Loganzino and Officer Jeremy Delaney , stopped Bowden and Marche on Church Road for allegedly speeding. According to the police incident report, Marche’s 2008 black Jaguar was going 63 mph in a 45-mph zone.

The two sides agree on the basic scenario but differ widely on how the officers reacted toward Bowden and Marche during the stop. The plaintiffs allege their civil rights were violated during the highly publicized incident that ended, according to the lawsuit filed last September, with Marche in a holding cell at Southaven Police Department and a handcuffed Bowden at Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto with what doctors determined was a stress-induced attack. Bowden also involved the wife of then-Memphis Mayor A C Wharton in the story when she called the mayor’s wife during the stop to vouch as a character witness.

Bowden and Marche are seeking $1 million each from Southaven.

Southaven contended in its November response to the suit that its officers acted appropriately in their official capacity, and requested the case be dismissed. Instead, jurors will decide if the complaint has merit. The court order gives plaintiffs until April 6 to designate expert witnesses they will present at trial, and Southaven has until May 5 to designate its experts. A pretrial conference is set for November in Greenville.

The lawsuit says the actions of the two officers demonstrate they needed better training, and the city is liable for not recognizing that need and providing the training.

The city’s response acknowledged that Loganzino and Delaney stopped Marche’s Jaguar and recognized it from a previous stop. The response also acknowledged that Marche could not produce identification, that Bowden contacted a person identified as Wharton’s wife to vouch for their character, that the couple ultimately was taken into custody and that Bowden, after becoming ill in the jail cell, was taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto.

But as to claims about the officers’ alleged hostile demeanor and statements they allegedly made to the plaintiffs — such as Delaney telling Bowden as he placed her in the patrol car that she “won’t get hurt if you go in butt first, but I don’t care how you get in there” — the response denied the claims and demanded “strict proof” that they occurred.

Both sides agree that Marche at one point told Bowden something to the effect of: “Honey, be quiet. This is some redneck (mess). They will hurt you.”

The incident drew widespread attention locally and nationally at the time because of other incidents between African-Americans and police.

Southaven officials have not commented on the case except in their response to the suit. Attorney John Keith Perry Jr. of Southaven, representing Bowden and Marches, said at the time the lawsuit was filed that “the suit says it all.”