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Three More People Say They Were Subjected To Illegal Little Rock Police Raids

Attorney Benjamin Crump (center) with plaintiffs Roderick Talley (left) and Derrick Davis (right ) at KUAR Wednesday.
Michael Hibblen
/
KUAR News

Three more people have been added to a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Little Rock Police Department. Roderick Talley, Juanglecio Boykins, Candice Caldwell, and Derrick Davis allege the narcotics unit’s use of no-knock search warrants violated their fourth amendment rights.

Their stories were first detailed by an investigative article from The Washington Post. It illustrated the raids the plaintiffs in the lawsuit underwent. Explosives were used to enter their homes while executing the no-knock search warrants and the raids failed to provide the evidence used to obtain the warrants initially.

Roderick Talley first filed the lawsuit pro se after the charges he received from the raid performed on his home last year were nol-processed. Pro se means he filed the lawsuit alone with no legal representation and nol-processed means there was not sufficient evidence to try the case against him, but he could be charged at a later date. Since then he has been reaching out to others whose rights he believes were abused.

Now nationally-known civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who represented the families of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida and Michael Brown in Furguson, Florida, is representing the plaintiffs, along with local civil rights attorney Mike Laux in their suit against the Little Rock Police Department.

Crump says he believes this case could set a national president due to what he believes is wide-spread intentional disregard by the city of citizens’ rights.

"It has the potential to be a landmark case based on the refusal of the Little Rock City government leaders to accept accountability," Crump said.

Derrick Davis’ home was raided weeks after Talley’s and he says having Talley reach out to help him gave he and his family hope during a difficult situation.

"That just shows you that God is real and he sent him towards my direction because he knew that I would be lost with no direction and probably would have taken a plea deal to something I didn’t do," Davis said.

Talley hopes that this case will motivate others to learn the law so that they can stand up for themselves if they feel targeted or wronged by the justice system.

"We need to start policing the police. We need to start being accountable for our own neighborhoods instead of allowing outside people to control our neighborhood," said Talley. 

2018-10-24-No_Knock-Extended_Interview.mp3
Hear more of KUAR's interview with attorney Benjamin Crump and plaintiffs Derrick Davis and Roderick Tally.

Little Rock City Attorney Tom Carpenter said in a written statement that the department's policies comply with state and federal civil rights laws. He declined to offer further comment on pending litigation. 

Currently Talley and his legal team are working to gather more cases to support their lawsuit. 

City Attorney Tom Carpenter said in a written statement that the department's policies comply with state and federal civil rights laws. He declined to offer further comment on pending litigation. 

Currently Talley and his legal team are working to gather more cases to support their lawsuit.