Lexington faces new lawsuit, days after settling with Justice Department
By Mina Corpuz | Originally published by Mississippi Today
Legal groups are suing Lexington and its police department for free speech violations days after the city settled with the U.S. Department of Justice over its policing practices.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and the ACLU of Mississippi are representing Lexington resident Terrance Gypson, who alleges that in May 2024 police officer Robert Boyd came at him with a Taser, threw Gypson to the ground and arrested him without probable cause.
The 29-year-old was recording video of police action from a safe distance and didn’t interfere with officers, according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for Southern Mississippi.
“Recording the police is a critical tool to ensure that there is a fair record of what happens when police officers interact with the communities they serve; therefore, all citizens have a right to record the police in public spaces. Mr. Gypson’s right was violated,” Christoper Graves, senior staff attorney from SPLC, said in a Wednesday statement.
Attorneys say police charged Gypson with misdemeanors of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, and he was found guilty in Lexington Municipal Court. After an appeal, a Holmes County Circuit Court judge dismissed the charges with prejudice, meaning the case is permanently closed and cannot be refiled.
The legal groups are seeking a judgment in favor of Gypson for unspecified compensatory damages. The lawsuit also calls for policy and practice reforms and tighter oversight of the police department.
A lawsuit is one side of a legal argument. The city and department will have an opportunity to respond to the allegations in court filings.
The SPLC and ACLU of Mississippi were among those whose suit against the city and police helped lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to an investigation that began in 2023.
Months after the alleged police assault of Gypson, the Justice Department issued a report based on its investigation about how the Lexington police “engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives people” of their constitutional rights. Those practices included retaliation against those who filmed officers and the jailing of people for unpaid fines.
“Police have a powerful role in our society. That role must be performed within certain boundaries. When those boundaries are broken, police must be held accountable,” Joshua Tom, legal director of the ACLU of Mississippi, said in the statement with the SPLC.
At the beginning of the year, the Lexington Board of Aldermen adopted reforms in response to the DOJ’s investigation and report. Among those actions was dismissing the city’s chief, Charles Henderson. In May, the city hired David Simmons, who has made rebuilding community trust a major goal.
Henderson had begun leading the department in 2022 following the firing of his predecessor, Sam Dobbins.
The Lexington police force and its practices have been the subject of scrutiny since the publishing of a leaked recording featuring Dobbins using racial and homophobic slurs to describe use of force while on the job, including the killing of 13 people.
This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Source: Original Article
