Cops racially profiled black men on ‘Live PD’ TV show, South Carolina lawsuits say
Sheriff’s deputies on the popular “Live PD” television show racially profiled a man and falsely arrested him on drug charges, a new lawsuit filed in South Carolina says. It’s the second incident in one day of filming for the show in Greenville County, South Carolina to spark a lawsuit.
Fredrick West and a group of friends were outside his house on April 29, 2017, when Greenville County sheriff’s deputies searched them during a filming of the A&E show, according to the court filing. When they didn’t find anything, the officers searched the surrounding area and came up with a bag of drugs, the lawsuit says.
They arrested West for drug trafficking, but those charges were dismissed the next year, according to the lawsuit and criminal court records.
West, the lawsuit says, “was largely targeted because of his race.”
The “drug charge was dismissed by the Assistant Solicitor handling the case due to insufficient evidence collected and presented by Lovelace,” the lawsuit says.
Greenville County Sheriff’s Deputy B.R. Lovelace was the arresting officer, according to court records and the lawsuit.
“The LivePD episode has aired nationally countless numbers of times since it originally aired. The airing of the episode continues to do irreparable harm to the Plaintiff as long as it continues to air,” the lawsuit says.
Deputies charged West with “trafficking in cocaine, 10 grams or more, but less than 28 g - 1st offense” court records show.
An attorney for Big Fish Entertainment, which produces “Live PD,” told the Greenville News in a written statement: “We have not been served with the complaint in this case, but any claim that someone’s rights were violated by the producers of Live PD is completely without merit.”
This is not the first time the television show has been sued in South Carolina. On the same day as the incident with West, a “Live PD” crew filmed another Greenville deputy crashing into the back of a man’s car, The State reported.
Deputy Chad Ayers “rammed his patrol car” into Javonte Hall’s car as a crew filmed for the show, according to a separate lawsuit filed July 2018.
The earlier lawsuit also says the man “was largely targeted in this manner because of his race.”
“’Ayers ‘aggressively’ approached Hall with his weapon, and detained Hall for ‘an objectively unreasonably long amount of time’ while his car was searched,’ according to the complaint,” as reported by The State. “’During this time, Mr. Ayers made various defamatory comments to the cameras, and commentators painted the Plaintiff as a dangerous criminal,’ the complaint states.”
The deputy did not find anything on Hall and released him, and the sheriff later apologized for the incident, according to the earlier lawsuit. But then, in an answer to Hall’s lawsuit, the sheriff’s office said an investigation by the South Carolina Highway Patrol found Hall to be at fault for the crash.
This story was originally published May 8, 2019 at 10:03 AM with the headline "Cops racially profiled black men on ‘Live PD’ TV show, South Carolina lawsuits say."
