OHP Settles Suit With Army Sergeant

Highway Patrol Accused Of Singling Out Black Motorists For Traffic Stops,
Drug Searches

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol has settled a federal lawsuit by a black Army
sergeant and the ACLU that alleged the agency engaged in racial profiling,
but a court order permits the patrol to keep terms of the settlement secret.

A spokesman for Gov. Frank Keat ing said the terms should be made public if
the settlement involves public funds.

The agency also sought and received a court order to seal numerous records
dealing with the case. The order allows records to be destroyed after the
lawsuit concludes.

Also, court records show several troopers sued in the case failed to record
the race of out-of-state drivers they ticketed in nearly every case. The
troopers were assigned to the special operations troop, which is trained to
intercept drug traffickers.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit May 18, 1999, on behalf
of Sgt. 1st Class Rossano Gerald and his then-12-year-old son, who are
black. The suit claims that the OHP singles out black drivers for traffic
stops and drug searches based on a drug courier profile."

Public Safety Commissioner Bob Ricks has vehemently denied the charge,
saying there is no pattern of racial profiling within the OHP. Ricks could
not be reached for comment and an attorney for the OHP declined to comment.

Gerald, a decorated veteran of Operation Desert Storm, was stopped and
detained for more than two hours by the OHP while driving through Oklahoma
on Aug. 13, 1998. The suit claims troopers repeatedly searched his red
Nissan 300 ZX after stopping him on Interstate 40 near the Arkansas border.
It states that Gerald and his son were placed in a sweltering patrol car
and that troopers caused more than $1,000 in damage to the Geralds' car
before letting them go with a warning ticket.

The lawsuit claims the OHP and the four troopers named violated the equal
protection clause of the Constitution, conducted an unreasonable search and
seizure and engaged in race discrimination.

While U.S. District Judge David L. Russell dismissed most of the claims in
the case, a trial was set to begin Monday on the remaining claims. Those
claims apparently dealt with whether the Geralds were subject to an illegal
search and seizure, a violation of the Fourth Amendment.

The suit names the patrol and troopers Branson Perry, Russell Knoke, Bob
Colbert and Jim McBride.

Court records show the case was settled April 19 and that Russell issued an
order Thursday to "disburse settlement proceeds." The order was filed under
seal, records show.

Reginald Shuford, an ACLU attorney based in New York, said he could not
comment on the specifics of the settlement. Shuford was one of several
attorneys who brought the lawsuit, which was later joined by the state
NAACP chapter.

"This case is resolved to the mutual satisfaction of all parties
concerned," Shuford said.

The lawsuit sought unspecified damages. It also sought to force the OHP to
begin collecting data on all stops conducted, including the person's race
and whether or not a search was conducted.

Increasingly, police departments and highway patrol units across the nation
have begun collecting data to examine the issue of racial profiling.

Several states have passed laws requiring such data collection. Last month,
the Texas Legislature became one of the latest to approve a data collection
bill.

While a law passed in Oklahoma last year outlaws the use of race as a
determining factor in traffic stops, it does not require authorities to
collect data on the races of people they stop and search.

A study submitted in the Gerald lawsuit showed that the special operations
troop issued just under 12 percent of its warning tickets to black
motorists. In 1999, about 7 percent of Oklahoma's population was black and
over the driving age, court records state.

Evidence submitted by the plaintiffs also showed that the special
operations troop issued 85 percent of its warning tickets to motorists with
out-of-state license plates. During a five-year period studied, "Trooper
Perry failed to designate the race of the driver of the out-of-state
licensed vehicles 99.5 percent of the time," court records show.

"During the same period, 52 percent of the citations Defendant Colbert
issued were to motorists driving out-of-state licensed vehicles, less than
1 percent of which were white. Defendant Colbert failed to designate the
race of the remaining out-of-state motorists to whom he issued citations,
nearly 100 percent of the time."

There was little or no disparity in citations given to black motorists from
Oklahoma by the four troopers named in the lawsuit, records state.

An expert report submitted by Dr. John Lamberth concludes that: "I am not
able, based on statistical evidence, to determine ultimately whether the
Oklahoma Highway Patrol in general or Troop SO in particular are targeting
minority motorists to stop and search, even though the data on citations
and contact reports issued by Troop SO as well as data on citations issued
by the rest of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, are consistent with the
proposition that Troop SO of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol is targeting
minority motorists."

An order by Russell states that the Geralds failed to prove racially
disparate treatment by the OHP, in part because there are no statistics
that address how often the OHP stops and searches blacks versus whites.

Some exhibits and documents in the case are sealed due to a protective
order requested by the Department of Public Safety. Russell granted the
order Sept. 12.

The Department of Public Safety "seeks a protective order on the grounds
that certain policies and training documents are confidential and should
remain so as public dissemination could threaten the safety of law
enforcement officers and the public," the order states.

The ACLU and Gerald objected to the request as "overly broad, because it
allows defendants to designate most categories of documents as confidential."

Robert McCampbell, an Oklahoma City attorney hired by the Department of
Public Safety to defend the lawsuit, declined to discuss the case in
detail. He said it is not unusual that the terms of the settlement have
been sealed.

"It happens all the time that agencies enter into confidential settlement
agreements," said McCampbell, who has been nominated as the new U.S.
attorney for the Western District in Oklahoma.

Gerald Adams, a spokesman for Attorney General Drew Edmondson, said any
payment to settle the suit would be a public record if it involved public
funds.

"If it's from a private source, such as an insurance policy, then it would
not be," Adams said.

Dan Mahoney, a spokesman for Keating, said the governor is not aware of the
settlement terms. Keating was originally named in the suit, but Russell
later dismissed him from it.

"The governor fully supports that if public money is involved, the terms of
the settlement should be made public."

When asked about the OHP's request to seal documents in the case, Mahoney
said: "The governor has faith in Commissioner Ricks. . . . We would defer
to Commissioner Ricks' judgment on that."