Is an apology worth $15,000? Baton Rouge paid more to settle police lawsuit without one. [The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.]

Apr. 19—A woman suing Baton Rouge police — accusing an officer of muting his body camera, spewing profanities at her and yanking her out of a car — gave Parish attorneys two choices in a settlement agreement, emails between her attorney and Parish counsel show: Pay her $55,000 in taxpayer money for damages, or pay only $40,000 but issue an apology.

Parish attorneys opted to pay the extra $15,000, documents obtained by The Advocate show.

"They think because they're police officers, they can handle people and treat people any type of way," plaintiff Shermaine Reed, 28, said. "I just thought an apology would maybe bring some type of awareness to sit down and look at the things that are going on. With them not willing to apologize, it just made me feel like it's something that's going to continue."

Reed said it felt like the department was saying "we'll pay you and just move on to the next thing."

BRPD directed questions about the settlement to the parish attorney's office. Parish Attorney Andy Dotson did not respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit alleged that, on Oct. 31, 2020, Reed had gone to help her sister, who had just gotten in a car accident on Harding Boulevard and was arguing with the other driver.

BRPD Officer Troy Lawrence Jr., a four-year officer and son of deputy chief Troy Lawrence Sr., arrived on the scene and quickly muted the audio on his body camera, court documents state. He later told internal affairs investigators that he had done this to avoid recording what he felt he "needed to tell the parties."

The lawsuit says Lawrence began shouting expletives at everyone and said he wouldn't issue a police report because the damage wasn't severe enough. Reed told him he was acting inappropriately, to which he responded by shoving her and telling her to get back in her car with vulgar language, according to the lawsuit.

Reed returned to her sister once the two drivers exchanged insurance information, the lawsuit says, but Lawrence ordered her to get back in her car and give him her ID, even though she wasn't involved in the crash.

Reed sat in the driver's seat of her car and fumbled to get her license. Lawrence ordered her to hurry up, grabbed her wrist, pulled her out of the car and placed her in handcuffs, the lawsuit says; she banged her knee during the process, causing an injury that later required hospital attention.

Lawrence placed Reed in the back of his police car and said she'd be going to jail, the lawsuit says; he wrote in a police report he did this to deescalate the situation. He didn't release her until her stepfather pleaded with Lawrence that he could calm her down.

"I thought he was going to put me in prison or beat me up or something," Reed said. "Just his demeanor and the way he was speaking to me, pushing me. I thought he was going to beat me up."

She filed a complaint with BRPD the next day, saying she "was treated like an animal," and that Lawrence's behavior "contributes to the stigma towards police officers."

Lawrence told internal affairs investigators that he asked for Reed's ID because she had gotten out of her car to argue with the other driver and was causing a disturbance. He denied using profanities when addressing the drivers and claimed to only curse at Reed in response to her cursing at him first, though he confirmed pulling Reed out the car to handcuff her.

Lawrence added he didn't fill out a "use of force" report because his supervisor didn't require it, according to the internal affairs report from the incident.

After interviewing him and other witnesses at the scene, BRPD ruled that Lawrence violated policies regarding command of temper, conduct unbecoming of an officer and body camera use — investigators ruled that his conduct did fall in line with policies on use of force.

The department initially issued a two-day suspension for the incident, but after Lawrence sent Police Chief Murphy Paul a request for reconsideration, the disciplinary sentence was downgraded to a Letter of Reprimand on March 11, 2021.

A BRPD spokesman said Paul "has a discipline review panel that handles the disciplinary process."

"Chief Paul, I committed the violations that were sustained and as I have done since the investigation began, I acknowledge and accept full responsibilities for my actions," Lawrence wrote in his request. "As I stated during the hearing, I have had time to reflect on my actions and have taken steps to ensure that I will not allow circumstances out of my control to compromise my professionalism going forward."

Reed filed her lawsuit against BRPD on October 30, 2021, claiming Lawrence used excessive force, performed an unreasonable seizure, retaliated against her first amendment rights and discriminated against her on the basis of sex (for only releasing her when her stepfather said he could "control" her).

Settlement discussions began this past January, when her attorney, Thomas Frampton, first proposed cutting $15,000 off the total settlement amount if Lawrence apologized to Reed. His final offer was $40,000 with the apology or $55,000 without one, emails between him and East Baton Rouge Parish attorneys show.

"Lawsuits are about money," a parish attorney wrote in an email to Frampton. "So, this is my last attempt because I am not going back and forth with your client. We will recommend $55,000 to the council for their approval and that's it. No apology."

The $55,000 settlement offer was taken to the Baton Rouge Metro Council March 8, but the council voted to defer a vote on the matter for two weeks after a discussion took place in executive session. The offer was later approved on March 22.

"It's both saddening and deeply worrisome to spend an extra $15,000 of taxpayer money so that a violent officer won't have to say, 'I'm sorry,'" Frampton said. "It reflects a real contempt for the people of Baton Rouge."

Lawrence has received at least three suspensions since the lawsuit was filed — twice for verbal altercations with other BRPD officers and again for crashing a vehicle, according to internal affairs documents and court records.

Prior to Reed's 2021 incident, Lawrence became the subject of controversy when he and Officer Ken Camallo conducted a warrantless search of an apartment after Camallo searched Clarence Green and his teenage brother during a traffic stop by looking in their underwear and groping their genitals, bodycam footage from the incident shows. He found a loaded gun and marijuana between the two, police reported at the time.

Frampton, who also represented Green, released an edited version of the bodycam footage from the search, causing public outcry against the officers. BRPD attempted to hold Frampton in contempt in response, a move deemed "astoundingly" hypocritical by a federal judge that resulted in an $86,000 settlement.

Green spent five months in jail before a federal judge dropped the charge. He received a $35,000 settlement from BRPD.

Camallo received a 75-day unpaid suspension and a demotion from sergeant to corporal; Lawrence received a 15-day suspension for violating policies regarding command of temper, conduct unbecoming of an officer and body camera use, according to an internal affairs report.

The report also stated body camera footage shows him cursing at Green. Lawrence told investigators he did so because he was a "rookie" at the time and thought it was "a good tactic to assert dominance." It also revealed he had previously muted his body camera without proper explanation during incidents in August 2020 and September 2020.

"For years, we have attempted to get [BRPD] to do the right thing," Frampton said. "But they are simply refusing, and it's going to cost the taxpayers increasingly large sums of money."

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