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Two North Carolina residents and a racial justice advocacy group have filed a voter intimidation lawsuit against two law enforcement agencies, alleging excessive use of force at a get-out-the-vote rally.
The lawsuit, filed late Monday in federal court, names Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson and Graham, North Carolina, police chief Mary Kristy Cole as defendants.
According to the plaintiffs, participants in a march to the polls Oct. 31 were physically injured when sheriffs’ deputies and police officers pepper-sprayed them.
Oct. 31 was the last day of early voting and same-day voter registration in North Carolina, according to the complaint.
The plaintiffs claim the actions scared and injured them to the point that many weren’t able to march to the polls. Multiple people also were allegedly unlawfully arrested.
The lawsuit cites the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which was passed during reconstruction after the Civil War in order to protect the voting rights of former slaves and guard them from intimidation, violence and harassment. The Voting Rights Act also protects against voter intimidation in both elections and registration efforts.
Cole allegedly met the marchers, who numbered about 200 to 250, at the gathering spot, telling them “the street is yours” and that troopers were there to “help close the streets.”
The march began about 11 a.m., and marchers were allowed to walk in the road and were escorted by officers, the lawsuit says.
About a block from a Confederate monument and historic courthouse, the Rev. Gregory Drumwright, the lead plaintiff, asked the participants to stop, the voter intimidation lawsuit says.
Drumwright spoke using a portable PA system, giving a short speech about Wyatt Outlaw, Graham’s first Black elected city official who was lynched by white supremacists and local police in 1870, the plaintiffs say.
George Floyd’s niece then made brief remarks, and the group remained silent for “8 minutes and 46 seconds in symbolic remembrance of the 8 minutes and 46 seconds that George Floyd was pinned to the ground by a police officer’s knee on his neck,” the lawsuit states. Participants knelt, lay face down or stood silently.
The plaintiffs in the voter intimidation lawsuit say sheriff’s deputies were on the steps of the courthouse and snipers on top of the building who had their guns pointed at the marchers.
Drumwright and others then set up a small stage, under deputies’ guidance.
The plaintiffs allege “Graham Police suddenly and without any warning or prior order of dispersal, began spraying the marchers — many of whom, because of age or disability, were still making their way to their feet — with pepper spray.”
Members of plaintiff group Justice for the Next Generation attempted to use the crosswalk to access the courthouse grounds, but officers allegedly stopped and started arresting them.
Drumwright says he attempted to deescalate the situation, then brought on the first of several speakers.
Shortly before 1 p.m., a sheriff’s deputy tried to remove the generator powering the PA system.
As Drumwright approached to ask why, officers — again with no warning — deployed more pepper spray.
Jones claims she saw a sheriff’s deputy “spraying while a disabled, elderly African-American woman in a mobility scooter was convulsing with seizures.”
“Defendants’ officers stood nearby and took no steps to help her,” the voter intimidation lawsuit says.
Even though most easy sidewalk access had been blocked by city-erected barricades, police officers “began shouting at marchers to disperse, and without providing marchers adequate time to disperse, began dispensing large volumes of pepper spray into the crowd, even as marchers tried to leave the area,” the lawsuit alleges.
Sheriff’s deputies allegedly blocked the street leading to the nearest early voting location, “effectively preventing marchers from proceeding to that polling site.”
The plaintiffs say the victims who were pepper-sprayed included a 3-year-old, a 5-year-old and an 11-year-old, all of whom vomited as a result.
Video of the events shows an older man and a man with a camera being restrained by multiple officers, the lawsuit says.
At one point during the video, protesters tell one of the officers, “You sprayed a kid,” the voter intimidation lawsuit says. The police officer allegedly responds, “I did.”
The lawsuit goes on to describe other scenes of the defendants’ alleged misconduct captured on video.
“Despite Defendants’ claims that their actions were taken for ‘crowd control’ purposes,” the lawsuit says, “their actions had the actual consequence of harassing, threatening, and intimidating voters and peaceful marchers.”
“It was horrific,” Drumwright told NBC News. “Folks were afraid and traumatized by what happened. But we’re going into tomorrow’s gathering with the same intention that it be peaceful.”
The plaintiffs are seeking a judgment that the defendants’ actions violate their rights to free speech and assembly and their rights under the Voting Rights Act. They also seek damages, attorneys’ fees and costs and any other relief deemed appropriate by the Court.
Have you faced voter intimidation during a rally or at the polls? Let us know your experience in the comment section below.
The plaintiffs are represented by Kristi L. Graunke, Daniel K. Siegel and Jaclyn Maffetore of the ACLU of North Carolina; Elizabeth Haddix and Mark Dorosin of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; and Jason L Keith of Keith & Associates PLLC.
The North Carolina Voter Intimidation Lawsuit is Gregory Drumwright, et al. v. Terry Johnson, et al., Case No. 1:20-cv-00998, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.
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