Five men say in a new federal lawsuit Atlanta police officers pulled their pants down in public and conducted strip searches on them in view of others.
The claim is the latest of a string of federal lawsuits that accuse Atlanta police of abuse. Since the first of this year, Atlanta has spent more than $1.4 million to resolve allegations of police abuse.
APD declined to comment Monday on the latest suit. But Chief George Turner said in an interview last week that he is trying to change the culture of the department, and he is taking steps against those who violate the agency’s policies.
The department and the city of Atlanta are still dealing with the legal fallout of the 2009 Atlanta Eagle bar raid. The City Council on Monday agreed unanimously -- without discussion -- to pay $120,000 to eight men who brought one of three lawsuits about the raid at a Midtown gay bar. Last December, the city resolved the first Atlanta Eagle bar suit by paying more than $1 million to patrons.
Other suits alleging police misconduct -- unrelated to the Eagle case --have been resolved with cash settlements.
“For years people just assumed you can’t fight City Hall and you can’t fight the police department,” attorney Dan Grossman said Monday of a series of lawsuits filed this year. “You can almost call it a pent up demand for justice by people who have been abused by the police.”
Most of the officers named in the most recent suit were members of the now-disbanded RED DOG unit. Some of them have since resigned or been terminated.
The suit filed Friday names 14 officers, one identified only as John Doe I. Each of the five men say their pants were pulled down.
Jason Walker, stopped for a broken taillight on Sept. 30, 2009, said he was handcuffed and then one of the officers pulled down his pants. "Several witnesses unconnected to the incident saw Walker’s exposed genitals during this search,” the suit said. They found nothing, the suit said.
Cousins Kacy and Antonio Daniel said they were waiting in a car for Antonio Daniel’s mother, who was getting a manicure on May 20, 2010. The two were drinking soft-drinks, eating potato chips and listening to the car’s radio when two officers came up to the car and pulled out their guns, the lawsuit said.
Kacy Daniels pants and underwear were pulled down. One of the officers allegedly touched Kacy Daniels’ genitals.
Vance Perry was walking toward the apartment of some friends on June 29, 2010, when two officers grabbed him, the suit said.
While laying on the hood of the police car, Perry said, one of the officers pulled down his pants and underwear, “exposing his buttocks and genitals to ... his friends, his girlfriend and his two small daughters."
Councilman Michael Julian Bond said the city makes a “substantial investment” in training police officers, but that doesn't mean officers couldn’t benefit from more annual training.
“We are paying out a lot of claims, and not just the police,” he said. “It’s expensive.”
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