Judge CARLTON W. REEVES: ORDER GRANTING QUALIFIED IMMUNITY

White-Collar Defense: The FBI Has Targeted You - Now What Do You Do?

The Constitution says everyone is entitled to equal protection of the law – even at the hands of law enforcement.

· Over the decades, judges have expanded legal doctrine to protect law enforcement.

· The resulting doctrine, called “Qualified Immunity,” has not just evolved but morphed into Absolute Immunity,

· This has left judges with few viable options and the need for change.
This story starts with a man (Jamison) driving his Mercedes-Benz CLK-Class convertible, which he had purchased 13 days before from a car dealer in Pennsylvania to his home in South Carolina. The journey takes him through Mississippi.
Jamison didn’t,

· look like a “suspicious person

· make an “improper lane change.
Further, Jamison wasn’t

· suspected of passing counterfeit $20 bills

· mentally ill and in need of help.

· driving over the speed limit.

No, Jamison was a Black man driving his new Mercedes convertible.

His mistake was being black and in the wrong place at the wrong time.
From Officer McClendon’s testimony.

Officer McClendon says he stopped Jamison because the temporary tag on his car was “folded over to where [he] couldn’t see it.”

· It must have been held with only two bolts, but it had four.
Officer McClendon asked Jamison for “his license, insurance, [and] the paperwork on the vehicle because it didn’t have a tag.”

· Jamison provided his bill of sale, insurance, and South Carolina driver’s license.
Officer McClendon's background check using the El Paso Intelligence Center (“EPIC”), the National Criminal Information Center (“NCIC”), Jamison's criminal history, and the VIN on his car all came back Clear.

· But he never told Jamison.
Next comes inconsistencies and intimidation from the officer.

McClendon asks Jamison if he could search his car. Jamison asked him, “For what?”

· “to search for illegal narcotics, weapons, large amounts of money, anything illegal.”
First Request to Search.

· ...the officer changes the conversation to: what kind of work do you do? I’m a welder.

Second Request.

· ...he had received a phone call reporting that there were 10 kilos of cocaine in Jamison’s car.

· Jamison said No.

Third, Forth Request to Search.

· Officer: “Come on, man. Let me search your car.”

Fifth Request to Search.

· “I got the phone call [about] 10 kilos of cocaine.”

McClendon continued to bring up,

1. “the 10 kilos of cocaine,”

2. asserted that the car was stolen,

3. …and asked how many vehicles he owned, and he claimed that Jamison did not have insurance on the car.
Jamison finally gave up. “As long as I can see what you’re doing, you can search the vehicle.”

· McClendon searched“from the engine compartment to the trunk to underneath the engine to the back seats to anywhere inside the vehicle.”

· In his deposition, he did not find “anything,” and

· The search dog did not find “anything.
In total, the stop lasted One hour and 50 minutes.