BATON ROUGE -- Thomas Frampton, a lawyer and professor of law who represented Clarence and Tanya Green in a civil rights lawsuit against the City of Baton Rouge and the Baton Rouge Police Department, is further federally suing the City of Baton Rouge, its mayor and its police chief.
Sharon Weston Broome in her full capacity as mayor and Murphy J. Paul Jr. as Chief of the Baton Rouge Police Department are named as defendants in a complaint filed on June 23 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.
According to the complaint, Frampton settled the case with the Greens in May 2021. On May 27, 2021, the CBS Evening News ran a story pertaining to BRPD’s conduct causing the City of Baton Rouge to file a petition on behalf of itself and the Baton Rouge Police Department seeking to jail Frampton for contempt of juvenile court, alleging that he released the records of a juvenile criminal proceeding without authorization, the suit says.
According to the complaint, no juvenile criminal proceeding ever existed, as Clarence Green was an adult at the time of the settlement, and video footage had already been made public. The City of Baton Rouge and the Baton Rouge Police Department alleged their petition was in response to “negative correspondence from the public” after the story aired on CBS.
Frampton alleges this was retaliation in violation of the Constitution and it threatens to chill the speech of not only Frampton and the Green family, but any critic of the BRPD or the City,
Frampton seeks a permanent injunction ceasing any further retaliation action, declaratory relief, attorney's fees and costs. Frampton is represented by William Brock Most of Most and Associates.
U.S. District Court Middle District of Louisiana case number 3:21-cv-00362-BAJ-SDJ