A New Orleans resident has filed a lawsuit against the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, alleging that a group of deputies “unnecessarily and unlawfully” approached, detained and beat him up outside of a gas station in Terrytown last year.
A lawyer filed the federal suit on behalf of Bobby Rankin on March 31. According to the filing, a deputy approached Rankin in the gas station’s parking lot and yelled at him before grabbing and slamming him to the ground, at which point five other deputies joined in to kick and punch Rankin.
Rankin was eventually handcuffed and taken to the hospital, then arrested and detained by JPSO, which charged him with resisting arrest and simple assault, among other allegations. But the district attorney’s office later declined to prosecute the case and dismissed the charges, according to the suit.
The suit alleges that JPSO used excessive force before illegally detaining and arresting Rankin, violating his constitutional rights: “Plaintiff’s arrest was…the result of an unspoken and unwritten custom or practice within the Sheriff’s Office, evidenced by the agency’s failure to discipline or discourage deputies who engage in unconstitutional detentions and arrests, and who subject detainees to unnecessary and excessive force during arrests.”
The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday (April 4). A spokesperson for the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office confirmed that Rankin’s charges were dismissed due to insufficient evidence but declined to comment further because there is still an open case regarding someone else who was arrested during that same incident.
The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office has come under fire in the past for its excessive use of force, especially against the parish’s Black population. It has also come under fire for its practice of arresting people for “cover charges” – like resisting an officer – to justify the use of force.
The lawsuit does not identify Rankin’s race, but according to a Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office report on the incident, Rankin is Black.
The ACLU has previously called for a federal investigation into the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office after reporting by ProPublica found stark racial disparities in shootings by deputies in 2021.
According to that reporting, from 2013 through mid-2021, there were nearly twice as many lawsuits alleging wrongdoing by Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies as against New Orleans Police Department deputies – despite New Orleans Police Department having 40% more officers. Further, three-fourths of plaintiffs in the Jefferson Parish lawsuits were Black.
Alistair A. Adkinson, Rankin’s lawyer, said he had heard about the case from Rankin, who works a job next door to his law office.
“It just seemed so egregious,” Adkinson said. “I’m kind of a civil rights junkie in my private life, so when I saw it, I just I felt like something needed to be done.”
According to the suit, on the evening of March 31, 2024, Rankin parked outside an Exxon gas station in order to pick up his younger brother, who had attended a party in the area earlier that evening.
At the gas station, Rankin got out of his car and approached his brother, who was standing near a parked vehicle. As Rankin chatted with his brother, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office vehicles arrived on scene with their lights and sirens on. The JPSO incident report says the officers were in the area to control a large crowd “consisting of hundreds of juveniles and adults” who were “involved in street fights and other illegal activity.”
A JPSO official identified in the suit as “Deputy Doe 1” then approached Rankin and asked him if the parked car belonged to him. Rankin said no. The official then said that they planned to have the vehicle towed.
At this point, the suit alleges, the deputy became angry and started screaming at Rankin.
“I will have it towed,” the deputy said to Rankin while screaming, according to the suit.
“I don’t give a f—,” Rankin responded, walking away.
The complaint states that the deputy then followed Rankin and grabbed him by the arm before slamming him to the ground. At that point, five deputies joined the first one and “swarmed the area and began to strike and kick” Rankin. The suit says that Rankin did not fight or resist the deputies. Then, while Rankin was lying on the ground, one of the deputies sprayed Rankin with pepper spray.
“Despite [Rankin’s] incapacitation and total lack of resistance at any point, the aforementioned deputies continued to punch, kick, and restrain [Rankin] until he was bleeding, bruised, and unable to move on his own,” the lawsuit alleges.
A deputy then handcuffed Rankin. Paramedics then took him to Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, where he was treated for his injuries.
Rankin was then booked into the Jefferson Parish jail and charged with resisting an officer with force or violence, a felony. Rankin also faced charges of simple assault, contributing to the delinquency of juveniles and resisting an officer, all typically misdemeanors. The charges were eventually dismissed.
The JPSO incident report identifies Deputy Doe 1, the official who tackled and pepper sprayed Rankin, as Lt. Nicki Garnier. The report characterizes Rankin as acting in a threatening manner, alleging that Rankin was trying to rile up the crowd before Garnier grabbed his arm, at which point, the report alleges, Rankin “pulled away from Lt. Garnier and turned to face him as if he was preparing to strike.” Garnier pepper sprayed him, the report claims, only after Rankin refused to put his arms behind his back when the officers were trying to get him under control.
The suit was filed in New Orleans in Louisiana’s Eastern District court.