4th Circuit - Court of Appeals

This brief urges the Fourth Circuit to affirm the lower court's decision properly applying circuit precedent to the plaintiff's selective enforcement defense. The selective enforcement defense was appropriately supported by statistics revealing significant racial disparities in the Richmond Police Department’s (“RPD”) enforcement of traffic stops against Black drivers compared to their white counterparts. The evidence supplied by the plaintiff sufficiently demonstrated both discriminatory effect and discriminatory purpose, meeting the threshold for a selective enforcement claim.

To establish a conspiracy between defendants to violate a plaintiff's constitutional rights, a plaintiff need only show that the defendants shared a conspiratorial objective to engage in the conduct that caused the deprivation of rights. Our brief argues that the lower court erroneously applied an additional intent requirement in its analysis of Plaintiff-Appellant's civil conspiracy claim. 

Caraway v. City of Pineville et. al. addresses the case of Timothy Caraway, who brought a Section 1983 action against the City of Pineville, the Pineville Police Department, and multiple individual officers alleging numerous violations of his constitutional rights. The District Court granted summary judgement in favor of the Defendants-Appellees, framing self-serving statements made by the police officers involved in the shooting as the true narrative while simultaneously disregarding evidence--including video footage--that contradicted the officers' version of events.

Sharpe v. Winterville Police Department addresses the case of Dijon Sharpe, who was a passenger in a traffic stop where he was threatened with arrest if he continued to Facebook Livestream the stop. In addition to the threat, the officer attempted to confiscate Mr. Sharpe's phone. 

We filed our brief for CYAP v. Wilson in support of Carolina Youth Action Project and on behalf of thousands of of South Carolina students who have been arrested and charged for violating the state's vague statutes criminalizing typical and constitutional behavior in schools.