Mississippi Civil Rights Lawyer Arrested Filming Traffic Stop, Attorney Says

The next time you hear Americans talk about police brutality or human rights abuses in another country.

A Mississippi civ­il rights lawyer was arrest­ed Saturday after film­ing a traf­fic stop con­duct­ed by offi­cers from a police depart­ment she is suing in fed­er­al court, her attor­ney says.

Jill Collen Jefferson is the pres­i­dent of JULIAN, the civ­il rights orga­ni­za­tion that filed a fed­er­al law­suit last year against the Lexington Police Department on behalf of a group of city res­i­dents. Michael Carr, Jefferson’s attor­ney, told The Associated Press she was arrest­ed late Saturday evening after she filmed offi­cers after they pulled some­one over.

The Lexington Police Department did not imme­di­ate­ly respond to request for com­ment in voice­mails and phone calls.

Jefferson was arrest­ed nine days after Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division trav­eled to Lexington to meet with com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers about alle­ga­tions of police bru­tal­i­ty in the small town.

Jefferson’s law­suit claims police have sub­ject­ed Lexington res­i­dents to false arrests, exces­sive force and intimidation.

“As an advo­cate for her clients, Jill Jefferson believes that this pat­tern and prac­tice has hap­pened to cit­i­zens in Lexington,” Carr said. “Through this expe­ri­ence, she is show­ing the state, the area and pos­si­bly the nation the cor­rupt prac­tices of this city.”

Carr said Jefferson com­plied with a request to pro­duce iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and ques­tioned why the offi­cers had approached her as she filmed on a pub­lic street. She was arrest­ed and charged with three mis­de­meanors: fail­ure to com­ply, dis­or­der­ly con­duct and resist­ing arrest.

Jefferson was booked in the Holmes County Jail, where she remains pend­ing a court hear­ing, which had­n’t been sched­uled as of Sunday morning.

Carr said Police Chief Charles Henderson even­tu­al­ly agreed to release her with­out post­ing a bond. But Jefferson refus­es to pay a $35 pro­cess­ing fee levied by the jail for her release because she believes her arrest was unlaw­ful.

Im not sure why she pro­duced her iden­ti­fi­ca­tion except to say , “I am an attor­ney”?