JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi civil rights lawyer was arrested Saturday after filming a site visitors cease carried out by officers from a police division she is suing in federal court docket, her lawyer says.
Jill Collen Jefferson is the president of JULIAN, the civil rights group that filed a federal lawsuit final 12 months towards the Lexington Police Department on behalf of a gaggle of metropolis residents. Michael Carr, Jefferson‘s lawyer, instructed The Associated Press she was arrested late Saturday night after she filmed officers after they pulled somebody over.
The Lexington Police Department didn’t instantly reply to request for remark in voicemails and telephone calls.
Jefferson was arrested 9 days after Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division traveled to Lexington to fulfill with group members about allegations of police brutality within the small city.
Jefferson’s lawsuit claims police have subjected Lexington residents to false arrests, extreme power and intimidation.
“As an advocate for her clients, Jill Jefferson believes that this pattern and practice has happened to citizens in Lexington,” Carr mentioned. “Through this experience, she is showing the state, the area and possibly the nation the corrupt practices of this city.”
Carr mentioned Jefferson complied with a request to supply identification and questioned why the officers had approached her as she filmed on a public avenue. She was arrested and charged with three misdemeanors: failure to conform, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Jefferson was booked within the Holmes County Jail, the place she stays pending a court docket listening to, which hadn’t been scheduled as of Sunday morning.
Carr mentioned Police Chief Charles Henderson finally agreed to launch her with out posting bond. But Jefferson refuses to pay a $35 processing price levied by the jail for her launch as a result of she believes her arrest was illegal.
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Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on undercovered points.
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