'Purposeful racial discrimination' leads judge to order new trial in French Quarter arrest suit

An Indiana teen who sued Louisiana State Police, claiming his constitutional rights were violated during a 2015 arrest in the French Quarter, will get a new trial after a federal judge said lawyers for the defendants unlawfully declined to pick a potential juror based on his race.

Lyle Dotson sued former State Police Col. Michael Edmonson and the troopers who arrested him -- Rene Bodet, Calvin Anderson, Tagie Journee and Huey McCartney - in U.S. District Court in New Orleans in 2016.

Dotson said in his lawsuit the troopers arrested and detained him on Oct. 7, 2015, on Toulouse Street near Bourbon Street, and accused him of following an undercover narcotics officer.

McCartney used his personal cellphone to take pictures of Dotson while he was handcuffed, according to the lawsuit. Dotson objected to the photograph, and McCartney said Dotson kicked him, according to the lawsuit.

Read more: https://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2018/06/racial_discrimination_new_tria.html