Virginia Sues Town of Windsor, Accusing It of Discriminatory Policing

Virginia’s lawyer wide filed a suit connected Thursday against the municipality of Windsor, seeking changes successful policing and saying that his office’s monthslong probe uncovered grounds of discriminatory, unconstitutional policing.

The Windsor Police came nether scrutiny aft an incidental successful December 2020, erstwhile constabulary officers threatened and capsicum sprayed Caron Nazario, a Black and Latino subject officer, astatine a postulation stop, an brushwood that was caught connected camera.

Virginia’s lawyer general, Mark Herring, said successful a connection that “while our probe was spurred by the egregious attraction against Lieutenant Nazario that we each saw successful bodycam footage, we discovered that this incidental was indicative of overmuch larger problems wrong the department.”

The probe revealed “huge disparities successful enforcement against African American drivers, and a troubling deficiency of policies and procedures to forestall discriminatory oregon unconstitutional policing,” the connection said.

This was the archetypal clip the authorities of Virginia has sued a instrumentality enforcement bureau nether a caller instrumentality that gives the lawyer wide the close to bash truthful successful cases involving civilian rights violations. About 2,600 radical unrecorded successful Windsor, a municipality astir 70 miles southeast of Richmond.

Chief Rodney Daniel Riddle of the Windsor Police emailed a “statement from the town” and the constabulary section that said the determination to record a suit against Windsor was “clearly political.”

“Windsor, including its constabulary department, remains vigilant successful protecting the rights of each residents of the town, Isle of Wight County, Commonwealth of Virginia and nation, careless of contention oregon gender, who walk done its limits,” the connection said.

Lieutenant Nazario, of the U.S. Army Medical Corps, was driving to Petersburg, Va., past twelvemonth erstwhile helium saw constabulary lights flashing down him. He did not privation to halt connected a acheronian road, truthful helium drove astir a mile to a state station, according to a suit and video footage of the encounter.

When helium stopped, a Windsor constabulary serviceman ordered Lieutenant Nazario, past 27, to get retired of his car. Lieutenant Nazario asked wherefore helium had been stopped and wherefore the officers had drawn their guns.

“I’m honestly acrophobic to get retired of the car,” helium said, arsenic helium stayed successful his seat. “Yeah,” says 1 of the officers, according to footage from his assemblage camera. “You should be.”

The officers proceeded to capsicum spray Lieutenant Nazario portion helium was successful his car, arsenic helium pleaded for them to marque definite his dog, Smoke, was not choking successful the backmost of the car.

In April, an serviceman progressive successful the stop, Joe Gutierrez, was fired from the constabulary department. The lawyer wide announced an investigation that month.

The state’s suit seeks court-ordered argumentation changes successful the Windsor Police Department, including that postulation stops are conducted without bias and that usage of unit incidents are reported successful compliance with authorities law.

It besides seeks a tribunal bid barring the Windsor constabulary from engaging successful discriminatory activities and a court-ordered play of autarkic monitoring of the department, astatine its ain expense, with a civilian punishment of $50,000 for each proven usurpation of the Virginia Human Rights Act.

The lawyer general’s probe recovered that Black drivers accounted for astir 42 percent of the department’s postulation stops from July 2020 done Sept. 2021. That fig was overmuch higher than expected based connected the fig of Black residents successful the town, the bureau said. In addition, the fig of postulation stops and citations reported to the municipality assembly was little than the fig reported to the authorities for tracking and reporting purposes.

The connection sent by Chief Riddle said that the constabulary section practices nondiscriminatory policing and has taken further steps since the incidental to summation grooming and accountability.

The connection besides called the information cited successful the lawyer general’s probe “questionable.”It said that the town’s seven-person constabulary unit includes number representation. “There was nary request for Mr. Herring to record this lawsuit, but possibly for the involvement of headlines, which helium volition surely receive,” the connection said.

A spokesperson for the town, Joel Rubin, said the lawyer general’s numbers were questionable due to the fact that they did not instrumentality into relationship galore radical passing done the town, which is on a highway, Route 460.

In April, Lieutenant Nazario filed a suit successful the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. He accused the officers of illegally searching his car, utilizing excessive unit and violating his rights nether the First and Fourth Amendments. He besides accused the officers of threatening to destruct his subject vocation by charging him with aggregate crimes if helium raised concerns astir their conduct, according to the complaint.

A lawyer for Lieutenant Nazario could not instantly beryllium reached for comment.