Kentucky lawmaker files suit over 2020 protest arrests

Published 5:24 am Tuesday, June 15, 2021

A Kentucky lawmaker, her daughter and a Louisville activist have filed a lawsuit over their arrests on felony riot charges during last summer’s racial injustice protests.

State Rep. Attica Scott, a Democrat, filed the suit Monday in Louisville with Ashanti Scott and Shameka Parrish-Wright, a local activist and candidate for mayor, the Courier Journal reported.

The three said Louisville police officers violated their constitutional rights. The three were joining about 20 others that day to protest the death of Breonna Taylor.

Police accused the three women of being a part of a group that broke a window and threw a flare into the city’s downtown public library. They were charged with first-degree rioting, failure to disperse and unlawful assembly and jailed. All the charges were later dropped by the county attorney’s office.

The suit was filed against two officers and former Interim Chief Robert Schroeder.

LMPD did not respond to a request for comment from the newspaper.

In a statement Monday, Scott said she was suing LMPD because “we deserve to live free from over-policing, racial profiling and police violence.”