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Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill is suing the Philadelphia Police Department, after being jailed for nine hours without cause, stemming from an October 31 traffic stop.
Robert Williams aka Meek Mill, filed the lawsuit against police officers Andre Boyer and Michael Vargas, in Federal Court in Philadelphia on Monday (January 14).
Court documents state that “on October 31, 2012, at approximately 7:30 p.m., plaintiff was driving a Range Rover SUV when Philadelphia Police Officers Andre Boyer and Michael Vargas, without cause or justification, conducted a motor vehicle stop in the area of 11th Street and Girard Avenue in Philadelphia.”
“Following the vehicle stop, police officers Boyer and Vargas handcuffed plaintiff at the scene, transported him in custody to the 22nd Police District, took photographs of plaintiff which the officers posted and published, or caused to be posted and published, on Instagram and other social media websites, depicting plaintiff in police custody, held plaintiff in custody against his will in a jail cell for approximately nine (9) hours, after which time plaintiff was released on November 1, 2012, at 4:30 a.m., without being charged with any criminal activity and having caused plaintiff to miss a scheduled promotional appearance in Atlanta, Georgia.”
Meek says that the arrest’s timing caused him to refund “his deposit for the private jet that was booked to fly plaintiff in the evening of October 31, 2012 to a promotional appearance in Atlanta,” and cost him “the loss of numerous sponsorships and endorsements.
Meek is also suing for “anxiety and embarrassment associated with plaintiff being placed in a false light; and the anxiety and embarrassment of being seized, detained, confined and imprisoned against plaintiff’s will.”
Meek is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for civil rights violations, false imprisonment, invasion of privacy and civil conspiracy.
In the lawsuit, Meek’s attorney makes it clear that this has been a practice of the Philadelphia Police Department and that the stops have been racial in nature, much like the “stop and frisks” in New York City.
“Prior to October 31, 2012, the defendant City of Philadelphia, through the high command of the Philadelphia Police Department, implemented and enforced a policy and practice of stops, frisks, searches and detentions of persons, including plaintiff, without probable cause or reasonable suspicion as required by the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article 1 section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution”
“The stops, frisks, searches and detentions by Philadelphia Police
Department officers are often based on constitutionally impermissible considerations of race and/or national origin in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The victims of such racial and/or national origin profiling are principally African-American and Latino.”
