Parish: Richland
Police Department(s):
- Richland Parish Sheriff’s Office
- Louisiana State Police
The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana and Perkins Coie LLP are representing Glen Stewart in a civil rights lawsuit against law enforcement officers with the Richland Parish Sheriff’s Office and the Louisiana State Police, and against those agencies that employ them.
On the evening of November 7, 2020, Mr. Stewart was driving home while eating a cheeseburger. A Richland Parish sheriff, Caleb Loftin, pulled Mr. Stewart over for no reason beyond the color of Mr. Stewart’s skin—an encounter routinely experienced by Black men around the country.
As Mr. Stewart reached for his insurance documents, Loftin purportedly mistook those papers for a gun and withdrew his own pistol, pointing it at Mr. Stewart’s head from mere inches away. Fearing for his life, Mr. Stewart instinctively drove away, to his nearby home. He called his wife asking her to wait outside until he and the police car following him arrived because he wanted a witness and wanted to prevent his injury or death at the hands of a white police officer. When he arrived home, he immediately parked and surrendered to police while his wife watched.
After Mr. Stewart was handcuffed without incident and was standing beside a patrol vehicle, Loftin and Justin Morris—a Louisiana State Trooper with the infamously violent “Troop F”—along with two other police officers violently and unjustifiably assaulted Mr. Stewart. They punched him, tased him, and beat him until the asthmatic Mr. Stewart was unable to breathe and was crying out “don’t let them kill me” to his nearby wife.
To cover up their actions and “justify” their assault, officers then planted evidence in Mr. Stewart’s vehicle during an unconstitutional search, lied on police intake and testing records, and even forged Mr. Stewart’s signature on a written “acknowledgment” of his rights.
By bringing this case, Mr. Stewart seeks to hold Caleb Loftin, Justin Morris, and their respective law enforcement agencies accountable for their several violations of the United States Constitution and Louisiana common laws.
On June 15, 2022, Judge McClusky granted a Motion to Stay as soon as the related criminal proceedings are resolved.
The defendants named in this complaint are:
- Caleb Loftin, Deputy of the Richland Parish Sheriff’s Office
- Justin Morris, Trooper of the Louisiana State Police
- Gary Gilley, in his official capacity as the Sheriff of the Richland Parish Sheriff’s Office
- Colonel Lamar Davis, in his official capacity as Superintendent of the Louisiana State Police