A Mount Holly man falsely jailed for a week on an outdated
warrant has filed a lawsuit accusing the state police and two county
jails of ignoring his constitutional rights because he is black.
Albert Florence, 30, was arrested after a traffic stop in March
on I-295 in Burlington County revealed a warrant stemming from
traffic tickets years earlier in Essex County.
Florence said that he had papers proving that the issue had been
resolved, but that the state trooper would not listen to him. He was
taken to the Burlington County Jail, where, he contended, he was
strip-searched, denied permission to shower, and not given basic
hygiene tools such as a toothbrush and toothpaste. He was not
allowed to use the phone, he said in his lawsuit, filed in U.S.
District Court in Camden in July.
He alleges discrimination, unlawful arrest and false imprisonment
and seeks $2 million in damages and attorney fees.
His attorney said it was a case of racial profiling. "He never
should have been taken into custody," Susan Chana Lask said after a
news conference held in Newark yesterday to call attention to the
case.
State Police Sgt. Stephen Jones said the BMW sport-utility
vehicle, driven by Florence's wife, had been clocked at more than 80
m.p.h.
The trooper called in the information, and the dispatcher said
the BMW's owner had warrants. The trooper double-checked the
information on the computer in his cruiser, then asked the
dispatcher to call the Essex County Sheriff's Office to verify
Florence was still wanted, Jones said.
"At that point, the trooper made a legal arrest based on the
information he was given," Jones said.
After six days in the Burlington County Jail, Florence spent a
night in the Essex County Jail, where he was sent to face the
warrant charge. A judge released him after his wife hired a lawyer
and it was determined that the warrants had been satisfied.
J. Brooks DiDonato, an attorney for Burlington County, said
yesterday that "the allegations as they relate to the County of
Burlington are wholly without merit." There was no strip search, he
said.
Inmates arriving at the jail are told to remove their clothes
while being processed so corrections officers can look for
distinctive marks such as tattoos and document any visible injuries
that might have occurred during the arrest.
Inmates then must shower with a lice-killing soap and 24 hours
later are placed in general population. Each tier has pay phones
they can use.
"Mr. Florence was treated fairly and equitably while at the jail,
and all of his state and federal rights were observed," DiDonato
said.
Essex County officials, also named in the suit, would not
comment.
State police officials said attempts to paint this as a racial
profiling case were misguided. The agency has been under federal
monitoring since acknowledging in 1999 that troopers targeted
minority drivers.
The latest monitoring report, released in the summer, noted that
errors with traffic stops were technical, not constitutional. Stops
were "remarkably trouble free" between Oct. 1, 2004, and March 31,
the report said.
