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Plaintiffs have won Class certification in a lawsuit filed by protesters after a white St. Louis police officer was found not guilty of killing a black suspect.
The St. Louis police protests ignited after officer Jason Stockley was acquitted for murdering Anthony Lamar Smith.
Smith was a known drug dealer and had taken police on a high-speed chase; however, Stockley was reportedly heard stating he was “going to kill this m*****f*****, don’t you know it.”
In addition, there was reportedly evidence that police officer Stockley planted a weapon in Smith’s car after the shooting.
Protesters contended in their class action lawsuit that they and others faced chemical weapons, physical abuse, and mass arrests by officers in the ensuing St. Louis police protests.
The American Civil Liberties Union took up the cause and alleged that the police had violated protesters’ constitutional rights.
According to the complaint, the St. Louis police encouraged the use of force against protesters. In addition, attempts to record of police/protester interactions were allegedly disrupted.
Police systematically destroyed cell phones and other recording devices during the protests, alleged the plaintiffs.
U.S. District Court Judge Catherine Perry handed the St. Louis police protest plaintiffs a win by granting certification of their proposed Class.
“Defendant argues that class certification is inappropriate because it may have a preclusive effect in other pending actions for damages arising out of the protests at issue here,” notes the judge’s order. “This argument cannot defeat class certification as such a ruling is not one on the merits and therefore has no preclusive effect. Any concerns regarding the preclusive effect that a final judgment in this case might have on other, later-filed cases is appropriately raised in those cases and is not an issue properly before this court.”
Class certification is not the first win for plaintiffs in the St. Louis police protests class action lawsuit. In 2017, Judge Perry found that the police were wrong when they declared an unlawful assembly and, as a result, used chemicals to suppress protesters.
The class action lawsuit was filed by the ACLU, along with two protesters, Maleeha Ahmad and W. Patrick Mobley, and a legal observer, Pamela Lewczuk.
Lewczuk alleged that she was caught up in the mass arrests that occurred as a part of a controversial police tactic to quell the protests called “kettling.”
Kettling is controversial because ordinary bystanders and legal observers can be arrested in addition to protesters, potentially violating their constitutional rights.
Ahmad says that she was affected by the allegedly illegal use of chemicals during the St. Louis police protests.
The class action lawsuit contends that the police used chemical weapons to combat the protest, spraying without warning.
“Police officers, who were wearing protective equipment, then without warning deployed chemical agents at the individuals caught in the kettle,” alleges the complaint.
Mobley claims that his cell phone recording was destroyed by St. Louis police during the protests in the class action lawsuit. In addition, the plaintiff alleges that the police then threatened to arrest him based on false evidence.
The St. Louis Police Protest Class Action Lawsuit is Maleeha Ahmad, et al. v. City of St. Louis, Missouri, Case No. 4:17-cv-02455-CDP, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, Eastern Division.
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