Four Baton Rouge police officers have been charged with crimes as a result of an internal investigation into a disbanded street-crimes unit, whose members have also become the target of civil lawsuits alleging police abuses and sexual humiliation.
During a Sept. 29 press conference, Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul said that Deputy Chief Troy Lawrence Sr. was put on leave and charged with battery, theft, obstruction of justice and other crimes. A sergeant, Jesse Barcelona, and two corporals – Todd Thomas and Douglas Chutz – were also charged with similar counts related to a 2020 strip search.
Baton Rouge attorney Ryan Thompson filed a federal lawsuit against the Police Department last month on behalf of plaintiff Ternell Brown, who alleged officers subjected her to humiliating body-cavity searches at what was called the “Brave Cave,” an unmarked warehouse where the street-crimes unit allegedly took suspects. Officers became suspicious of Brown after finding prescription drugs in her car during a traffic stop.
The Police Department’s actions lend weight to the allegation in Brown’s lawsuit, Thompson said.
“To see those officers placed on leave just adds credibility to that allegation,” he told the Louisiana Record.
In the wake of the filing of civil lawsuits against the department, the city permanently closed down the Brave Cave and Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome assured the public that the street-crimes unit had been disbanded.
More than a year ago, Thompson said he became concerned about militarized police tactics, including the use of drones, military-grade weapons and pretextual stops, in Baton Rouge zip codes that were primarily Black. Now citizens know that residents in those zip codes were taken to the warehouse, he said.
“What you have here is CIA-style interrogations, coercion and torture, and unconstitutional acts being carried out here in America,” Thompson said. “... Here on American soil, you have suspension of individuals’ liberties without any type of due process or oversight.”
More than 30 people have come forward to allege they were victims of abuses at the Brave Cave, he said. The shutdown of that warehouse was a good first step, but it doesn’t address the core issue, which is the culture inside the Police Department, according to Thompson.
“We believe it is something that is systemic,” he said.
Some Baton Rouge Metropolitan Council members have called for Paul’s resignation after the allegations surrounding the Brave Cave surfaced, but prior to the controversy, Paul announced that he would step down in November.
“When misconduct occurs, we will acknowledge it, we will confront it and we will rectify it," Paul said during a press conference last week.
The officers who have been charged were allegedly involved in an attempt to strip-search an arrestee at a precinct bathroom, according to Paul. Two officers used tasers to get the suspect to comply with their body search request, he said, and a supervisor subsequently was involved in a coverup to hide what was described as an excessive use of force.
The Brown lawsuit alleges that top Police Department supervisors have consistently exonerated street-crimes unit members accused of wrongdoing prior to the current controversy over the Brave Cave.