Delaware state files civil rights complaint against Georgia Sheriff’s over lacrosse team bus stop

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Delaware State University has formally requested the United States Department of Justice to investigate possible civil rights violations during a traffic stop of the Women’s Lacrosse team bus in Georgia last month.

In a letter to Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke, DSU President Dr. Tony Allen said the Liberty County Police Department’s stop of the bus was illegal, and that the players’ bags should not have been searched.

“What we believe is that the search was conducted inappropriately and there was implicit racial bias in the search,” said Dr. Tony Allen, president of the historically Black university. “Even if they did not know who was on the bus at the time of the stop, there was certainly great certainty who was on that bus once they boarded it.”

Delaware State University women’s lacrosse team bus stopped and searched

On April 20, two sheriffs deputies from the Liberty County Sheriff’s Department stopped the DSU bus while it was traveling on Interstate 95 in south Georgia. The team was on its way back from a game in Florida.

The deputies are seen on video, which was taken by one of the people on the bus, saying that they are looking for drugs. They later used dogs to sniff through the student-athletes’ belongings, including their underwear.

“If there is anything in y’all’s luggage, we are probably going to find it,” one deputy says.

Officers speaking to the bus driver during the stop said they were pulled over for being a commercial vehicle in the left lane, but DSU cites a Georgia law that exempts buses from the restriction against commercial trucks.

“The illegal behavior exhibited by these officers, the repeated misstatements by the sheriff (both about the law and the facts), the attempt to obscure the facts, the failure to turn over immediately all of the videos from the encounter, and the racial disparity evident to anyone who views the videos make it clear that neither the sheriff’s office nor local officials can be trusted to investigate this incident completely and impartially.”

The deputies ultimately did not find any drugs during the search and the driver was issued a warning for the lane violation.

DSU will seek justice

In a statement, Allen said DSU will continue to fight until justice is rightfully sought.

“We do not intend to let this or any other incident like it pass idly by. We are prepared to go wherever the evidence leads us. We have video. We have allies. Perhaps more significantly, we have the courage of our convictions.”