Judge dismisses racial profiling case

 13 comment(s)  
 E-mail Story
 Print Story
  Share

 digg it!
 Facebook
 del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit

Text Size: 

Tools Sponsor

By CLARENCE MABIN / Lincoln Journal Star

A federal judge has dismissed a Lincoln man’s allegations that a Nebraska State Patrol trooper stopped him and two others on Interstate 80 because of their race.

U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith  Camp said Thursday the plaintiff, Rodney Ballard, presented statistics on traffic stops by race, but no real evidence, to support the allegations.

“While the statistical data presented by Ballard are interesting, they raise no genuine issue of material fact to be decided in this case,” Smith Camp wrote.

[+]Enlarge

Ballard filed a lawsuit in May of this year, asking for unspecified damages under causes of action including violation of his constitutional rights and violation of a Nebraska statute banning racial profiling.

His attorney, James Beckmann, said he likely would appeal the dismissal to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“Obviously, we disagree with the order,” Beckmann said.

Ballard and two other African Americans were pulled over Nov. 14, 2005, by a trooper in Lincoln County. A search of the vehicle uncovered cocaine in luggage and led the Lincoln County attorney to file criminal charges against Ballard.

In May 2006, Lincoln County District Judge John Murphy threw out the stop and search, finding the stop was “most likely the result of racial profiling.” Prosecutors dismissed the case against Ballard about two weeks later.

Beckmann, in the federal lawsuit filed earlier this year, referred to Murphy’s ruling, which had cited statistics that showed disparities in the experiences of black and white motorists with law enforcement.

The state, in motions to dismiss the lawsuit, said Ballard produced no evidence to show the trooper’s actions were “objectively unreasonable.”

Attorneys for the state noted Ballard, a passenger, gave the trooper permission to search the vehicle. The state also said Ballard presented no evidence the driver was not speeding, or following vehicles too closely, just prior to the stop.

Smith Camp said in the order Thursday that Murphy had found the search was not based on probable cause. She said the state judge did not make a factual determination that racial profiling had occurred.

Reach Clarence Mabin at 473-7234 or cmabin@journalstar.com.