Group to discuss police racial profiling suit
Monday’s meeting will highlight alleged incident in which an Annapolis officer assaulted a 12-year-old black child
An advocacy group is highlighting a lawsuit brought against the Annapolis Police Department for allegedly wrongly detaining a black 12-year-old boy, saying it’s emblematic of the department’s handling of the city’s black population.
The Community Actively Seeking Transparency group headed by the Rev. Marguerite Morris will discuss the detainment of the child by Annapolis police officer Brett Schrack in 2016 at its meeting Monday night in Odenton.
According to a lawsuit filed against the department by the boy’s mother — Ga’Juanah Holland, 39, of Annapolis — her son was “racially profiled, seized, assaulted and frightened” by Schrack when the officer approached him outside his home on Captain’s Circle.
The lawsuit claims that after the child went to check to make sure his door was locked and walked over to meet with his friends on a nearby sidewalk, Schrack approached him and “forcefully, without provocation or legal reason, grabbed the plaintiff ’s right arm and demanded to know, ‘What are you doing out here and where do you live?’ ”
The suit continues that, when the child didn’t answer, Schrack applied more pressure and asked again.
Holland claims her son now seeks therapy from the incident and is suing for damages in her civil suit. The suit also alleges Schrack’s actions were part of a pattern of “racial profiling African-American youngsters who reside within Section-8 Tax Credit Housing” by Annapolis police officers.
City attorneys denied Annapolis police singled out Holland’s child because of his race and said they have confidence Schrack’s action did not violate the child’s rights.
“There’s not a pattern or practice by Annapolis city police to single out any group or people,” City Attorney Richard Melnick said.
An attorney representing the family did not return a call for comment.
Morris has accused Anne Arundel police of withholding information regarding the investigation into the death of her daughter, Katherine Morris, who was found dead in her car behind Anne Arundel Community College on May 6, 2012, in what police ruled a suicide.
Morris believes the department’s investigation “was a rush to a suicide finding” and errors were made during the investigation, despite the fact police say the case was reopened nearly a half-dozen times, all to reach the same conclusion.
Holland’s lawsuit, which is scheduled to go to a jury trial next month and also lists officer Paul Sullivan as a defendant in the case, comes after three officers were exonerated in a wrongful detainment lawsuit brought against the department after another black man was placed in handcuffs in 2014 while police were searching for an assault suspect.
In that case, Towhee Sparrow sued three officers and the department in U.S. District Court after he said officers kicked him in the head and picked him up by his handcuffs while they detained him in their search for an assault suspect June 5, 2014.
That case also involved race as Sparrow, a black man, claimed he was called a racial slur and the victims of the original assault told officers the suspect was either Hispanic or Asian.
His attorneys filed a motion for a new trial last year, pointing to the fact his case was heard in front of an all-white jury.
In Holland’s son’s case, the family is suing Schrack, Sullivan, the Annapolis Police Department and the city of Annapolis on civil counts of assault and violation of Fourth and 14th Amendment rights — the amendments covering illegal search and seizure and the citizenship of black Americans post-slavery, respectively.
“The Annapolis Police Department caused this assault by implementing, following or failing to remedy police policy, practice, or custom that encouraged the racial profiling and abusive treatment of African-American members of the public,” the suit reads.
The C.A.S.T. meeting is at the Kingdom Hope Ministry, 1566 Annapolis Road in Odenton, at 6 p.m. Monday. It is open to the public.