FEDERAL JUDGE TOSSES PART OF RACIAL PROFILING SUIT

A federal judge Thursday threw out part of a lawsuit filed by three black
West Virginia State College students claiming Charleston police officers
stopped them because of their race.

The students are suing 11 Charleston police officers, one Nitro officer,
one Dunbar officer, former Charleston Mayor Jay Goldman and former
Charleston Police Chief Jerry Riffe alleging, among other things, false
arrest and illegal detention for an April 30, 2002, traffic stop near
Charleston Town Center on Washington Street.

U.S. District Judge Charles H. Haden II dismissed the portion of the
lawsuit alleging wrongful arrest because he said a one-year statute of
limitations had expired when the students filed an amended lawsuit naming
the officers on Oct. 1. In the original suit, filed April 30, 2002, the
officers were listed as John Does.

The students, Drew Williams of Grayson, Ga.; Jason Price of Kimball; and
Courtney Shannon of South Holland, Ill., did not originally file the names
of the police defendants because they did not know who stopped them at the
time, lawyers for the students said.

The names of the officers were later found. They are: A. Chad Napier,
William Hart, Brian W. Kinnard, Brian W. Jones, Jarl F. Taylor, Anthony E.
Payne, George Henderson III, Scott A. Frame, Randy M. Young, Michael
Pridemore and J.T. Waggy of the Charleston Police Department, Joseph
Savilla of the Nitro Police Department and Michael G. Wolfe of the Dunbar
Police Department.

On April 30 around 9:30 p.m., Hart pulled the students over and the other
officers surrounded Shannon's car, guns drawn. Police ordered Shannon to
toss his keys out the window. Then each student was ordered, one at a time,
to get out of the car and on their knees where they were handcuffed while
officers searched the car and each student for an hour, the suit says.

One officer told Williams repeatedly that they saw someone hand an item to
one of the occupants before they left a barbershop on the East End earlier
in the evening, the suit alleges.

In a response to the lawsuit, the officers admit stopping the students and
finding no evidence of criminal activity but deny that they told the
students that they believed someone handed them an item.

But Police Chief Jerry Pauley, then a major, told the Gazette in 2002 that
the officers had probable cause to stop the car and believed a vial of
crack cocaine had been handed to the students. The vial turned out to be
toiletry items the students had bought.

Five other counts against the officers alleging violations of the students'
constitutional rights, civil rights, assault and battery and "intentional
outrageous conduct" remain alive in the suit.

The students are seeking unspecified monetary damages, punitive damages and
attorney's fees.

They also want Judge Haden to order the police department to keep a record
of the race of every person stopped for traffic violations, the reason for
the stop and to note whether a search was conducted and why. A trial is
scheduled for May 18.

To contact staff writer Chris Wetterich call 348-3023.