Two recent federal lawsuits accuse the Baton Rouge Police Department of illegal activities at what has become known as the “Brave Cave,” a nondescript warehouse where a 47-year-old plaintiff said she was subject to humiliating body-cavity searches.
Ternell L. Brown, a Baton Rouge grandmother, filed her lawsuit Sept. 18 in the Middle District of Louisiana. Police officers detained Brown and her husband during a traffic stop earlier this year and discovered bottles of prescription medication, which Brown said had been prescribed for her, according to the lawsuit.
The officers forcibly transported the plaintiff to the Brave Cave, which the police force’s street crimes unit adopted as a base of operations, according to the complaint. She was held there for two hours and subjected to a strip search and body-cavity search prior to being released, the federal lawsuit alleges.
Another lawsuit filed in the same court in August labeled the Brave Cave a “torture chamber” and alleges plaintiff Jeremy Lee, a 21-year-old Baton Rouge resident, sustained serious injuries, including broken bones.
Brown’s legal complaint argues that the officers involved in her strip search were not rogue officers but were carrying out official Police Department policy.
“To this day, BRPD policy instructs officers that they may conduct these invasive strip searches whenever they have ‘reasonable suspicion to frisk’ a detainee,” Brown’s lawsuit states. “Such a policy runs directly contrary to longstanding U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence.”
Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome emphasized that the city shut down the “Brave Cave” in light of the recent claims surrounding the facility and disbanded the force’s street crimes unit.
“In light of the serious allegations, we reached out to the FBI to conduct an unbiased, external investigation,” Mayor’s Office spokesman Mark Armstrong said in an email to the Louisiana Record. “... BRPD is also conducting its own criminal and administrative investigations.”
In addition, the department has created a portal at BRPD.com for those who have had similar Police Department experiences and want to submit a complaint, Armstrong said.
Last month, Broome said that an officer, Troy Lawrence Jr., a defendant in the Jeremy Lee lawsuit, had tendered his resignation.