An attorney for the City of Pine Bluff, Pine Bluff Police Detective Mike Sweeney and former Police Chief Jeff Hubanks have asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that they violated the constitutional rights of a Pine Bluff man, according to an April 17 filing with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
Donald R Frazier Jr., also known as Donald Muhammad, listed three separate incidents where he said his rights were violated — the first in 2012, the second in 2013 and the third in 2015. Jenna Adams, an attorney with the Arkansas Municipal League who is representing the city in the case, said in the motion to dismiss that there was no question that police were acting under color of law.
“The question is whether they violated Frazier’s constitutional rights,” the motion said.
Regarding the three incidents, Frazier, who represented himself in court, claimed that on Sept. 12, 2012, Sweeney twisted his arm and broke his camera while he was video recording an incident where police officers were attempting to arrest a suspect that had fled from them.
Frazier filed a complaint with the police Internal Affairs Division, but after an investigation, no disciplinary action was taken against Sweeney. Also according to the motion for summary judgment, that allegation is barred because the three-year statute of limitations has run out.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The second incident, which Frazier said in the lawsuit occurred on July 21, 2014, but actually occurred March 22, 2013, alleges that Sweeney interfered with his right to freedom of the press when he attempted to put Frazier out of a meeting of the City Council. That incident is also barred by the statute of limitations.
In addition, Frazier did not file a complaint with police.
The final incident occurred July 29, 2015, when Frazier said Sweeney falsely arrested him without probable cause and without a warrant, then submitted a false probable cause affidavit, that Sweeney grabbed his wrist and phone, that the handcuffs were too tight, that he was placed in a hot car and that Sweeney drove too slowly to the jail.
The latter allegation is the most serious of the three, and the motion for summary judgment spent considerable time detailing the circumstances, arguing that there was probable cause to make the arrest, that Frazier can not prove that Sweeney’s actions in arresting him were a result of retaliation or racial discrimination, and that the other alleged actions do not constitute a constitutional violation.
Specifically, on July 15, 2015, Sweeney and Pine Bluff Police Detective Billy Robertson were sent to an address on West 11th Avenue to investigate a possible aggravated assault where Frazier and another man were the alleged victims. In a statement to Sweeney, Frazier said he was the manager of the property and had been sent there to switch out the breakers when a man allegedly pointed a gun at him.
The man who allegedly pointed the gun at Frazier was also interviewed, as was a woman and four juveniles. The man, Xxavier Holman, said that when the electricity went out in their apartment, he looked outside and saw Frazier and the other man walking away from the breaker box. Holman also said Frazier flipped over the metal building outside their apartment. He also said that not only did Frazier turn off the electricity to their apartment, he pulled out the wiring in the breaker box.
The woman and juveniles told essentially the same story, and Sweeney and Robertson inspected the breaker box and saw that there were wires pulled out and some breakers appeared to be missing. They also saw that the storage building had been destroyed.
Frazier told Sweeney he turned off the power, a claim he disputed in the lawsuit.
Sweeney and Robertson then contacted the property owner, Matthew Henry, who is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, and Henry said Frazier was not the manager of the property as he had claimed. Henry said he had only given Frazier authority to serve an eviction notice on the residents and did not authorize Frazier to turn off the electricity or switch out the breakers.
On July 29, Frazier flagged Sweeney and Robertson down, and they pulled onto the parking lot of the old Food King on Cherry Street to ask about the status of his aggravated assault case against Holman. At that time, Sweeney told Frazier that he had sent up charges of felony criminal mischief and there was a warrant for his arrest.
After his arrest, Frazier filed a complaint against Sweeney, saying that Sweeney had twisted his arm, but Robertson, in an interview with the department’s Internal Affairs Division, said, “Detective Sweeney was telling Frazier to put his hands behind his back … when he wasn’t turning around, Detective Sweeney did grab his arm, but it wasn’t jerked or anything to that nature … just give me your arm … turn around like that.”
Robertson said when Sweeney got Frazier’s right arm behind his back, Robertson took his left arm and moved it behind his (Frazier’s) back.
“Frazier never stated ‘oh my arm, my arm’ when he was being arrested as he claimed in his deposition,” the motion said.
After he was arrested, Frazier was placed in the back of Sweeney’s vehicle; when he complained that the handcuffs were too tight, Robertson loosened the handcuffs, straightened Frazier’s hands, then tightened the handcuffs. Frazier did not make any other complaints.
In addition, the motion also said that Frazier has offered no proof that the city requires officers to act unconstitutionally and no proof that the city fails to train its employees.