Inside a two-month span, Keith Puckett was visited or stopped twice by El Segundo cops.
One encounter was a go to to the 46-year-old Black man’s El Segundo house within the early morning hours by a cadre of cops, and one other was a night site visitors cease by a person officer.
These two incidents in 2021 are on the coronary heart of a racial profiling and illegal detention lawsuit filed Thursday by attorneys representing Puckett towards the town of El Segundo.
The lawsuit seeks a jury trial, compensatory damages and an injunction barring the town from partaking in unconstitutional conduct. The plaintiff additionally asks that El Segundo undertake acceptable insurance policies and coaching to keep away from such conduct sooner or later.
“Racism by legislation enforcement is illegal, unconstitutional and dangerous to everybody who experiences it, even when it doesn’t contain violence,” Lauren Blas, a lawyer for Puckett, stated in a press release. “Even when it doesn’t make nationwide information, it’s the type of harassing, demeaning, insidious conduct that Black folks and folks of coloration must cope with day-after-day.”
The town issued a press release: “The Metropolis of El Segundo is dedicated to treating all people pretty, regardless of their race, nationwide origin, sexual orientation, sexual identification or alleged involvement in prison exercise.”
A police investigation on Could 4 and metropolis human assets investigation on April 22, 2022, into Puckett’s allegations discovered no wrongdoing.
Puckett is an energetic group member and has labored as a mother or father volunteer, PTA member, leisure youth sports activities coach, basketball coach at his son’s college, volunteer crossing guard and lunchtime safety assist member, in keeping with the lawsuit.
El Segundo launched almost 20 minutes of dashcam and bodycam video of every incident.
The primary incident befell on Jan. 21, 2021, exterior Puckett’s house shortly after midnight when police questioned him a few automotive pushed by a good friend of Puckett that was registered with stolen plates.
Ultimately, the officer defined to Puckett’s good friend that there most likely was a clerical error relating to his plates that wanted to be cleared up with the DMV promptly, in keeping with the footage.
“The Jan. 21 incident deeply disturbed Mr. Puckett,” the lawsuit states. “He couldn’t get again to sleep that evening and needed to take the following day without work work.”
The second incident befell on March 14 when Puckett was stopped as a result of an officer seen his license plate gentle was not working.
Video and a subsequent photograph taken by Puckett seem to point out a working gentle and visual license plate.
The officer requested Puckett for his identify and private particulars.
Puckett accused the officer of pulling him over solely due to his race.
Shortly after working his info, the officer thanked Puckett for his cooperation and wished him evening, in keeping with video offered by the town.
“For the second time in two months, Mr. Puckett was deeply distressed and unable to sleep, and he needed to take the following day without work work,” the lawsuit stated. Though Puckett has not been pulled over since, he stated he fears extra racial profiling.
However the metropolis stated in a press release that the movies confirmed that in “each cases the officers performed themselves in skilled and respectful method.”
Nonetheless, Puckett filed complaints with the chief of police and metropolis supervisor, with no decision, in keeping with the lawsuit.
After the second incident, Puckett emailed then-Metropolis Supervisor Scott Mitnick, in keeping with the lawsuit.
Puckett met with Mitnick to additional talk about what occurred and spoke in regards to the incidents at a Metropolis Council assembly on March 16, 2021.
An e-mail to Mitnick, who’s now the city supervisor of Moraga in Northern California, was not answered.
Earlier than the lawsuit, Puckett’s authorized group stated, he entered into 11 agreements with the town relating to policing, anti-bias coaching and therapy of Black residents inside the metropolis in an effort to keep away from a lawsuit.
The town stated it handled Puckett’s claims “significantly” and employed an outdoor agency to analyze.
The town stated it agreed to all however one coverage change, which was to “deprioritize stops relating to obscured license plates.”
“The Metropolis of El Segundo isn’t prepared to conform to discontinue practices when doing so would adversely impression public security at a time of rising considerations about crime,” the town stated.
Puckett’s lawyer Blas stated the lawsuit “is a last effort to carry the town accountable for its illegal conduct and to compel it to finish racial profiling by the ESPD.”
