'Lawyering while black': Attorney says deputy profiled him as a suspect at courthouse

A black attorney filed a complaint with a Maryland sheriff's office after he says a deputy racially profiled him by questioning whether he was a lawyer and accusing him of being a suspect.

Rashad James, an attorney for Maryland Legal Aid, was in Harford County District Court earlier this month representing a client who was not present at an expungement hearing when a sheriff's deputy allegedly detained him, the complaint says.

James told reporters Tuesday that the incident was "surreal," and that the deputy essentially asked him to prove that he was a lawyer. He said it was the first time he had represented a client at the courthouse.

"If Mr. James were white, this would not have happened. He would have been able to walk out of that courtroom without any question about who he was and who he was representing," James' attorney Chelsea J. Crawford said at the news conference.

Read more: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/29/lawyering-while-black-maryland-attorney-accused-being-suspect/3311666002/

Cross-posted in the African American Group.