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SJLF, on behalf of our client Alexander Clark, is confronting racist policing and a culture of impunity head on in Louisiana in Clark v. Hotard et al. Through this lawsuit, we seek relief for the unlawful detention, seizure, and excessive use of force inflicted on Mr. Clark by deputies of the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office – a hyper-segregated Parish that was once the Louisiana seat of the KKK.
On May 19, 2022, Social Justice Legal Foundation (SJLF) and ACLU of Louisiana sued, on behalf of Alexander Clark, the Sheriff of Livingston Parish, the Chief of Police of the Denham Springs Police Department, the City of Denham Springs, and several law enforcement officers for violations of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments based on their alleged unconstitutional racial profiling, seizure, searches, and excessive force during and after his traffic stop.
Mr. Clark’s complaint alleges that this stop was no anomaly, but instead evinces a widespread pattern and practice within the Sheriff’s Office and Police Department of targeting the sole majority-Black neighborhood in Livingston Parish for excessive stops and searches based on race.
Mr. Clark is a 67-year-old retired tradesman and grandfather. He has significant family ties to the historically black neighborhood and visits it frequently.
His lawsuit describes how Mr. Clark was pulled over by deputies of the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office while attempting to get gas in the neighborhood. After Mr. Clark provided his license and registration, Sheriff’s deputies searched his truck repeatedly and without consent. The deputies forced Mr. Clark to sit on the back of his truck for nearly 30 minutes, while they rifled through his belongings and tools, and made demeaning comments about what they expected to find. Despite finding nothing, the Deputies—alongside a Denham Springs Police officer, forcefully arrested Mr. Clark, wrenching his hands behind his back and forcing him down, tearing tendons and fracturing bones in his right hand. The lawsuit alleges that Mr. Clark had multiple surgeries and suffered significant pain as a result of these injuries.
The complaint was brought as a part of ACLU-LA’s Justice Lab initiative, which aims to challenge racially discriminatory police practices by focusing intensive litigation efforts on a single state.
“My dad always said, right is right. And what happened to me just ain’t right. I want justice for me and for my community. This has been going on for too long. Enough is enough.” Alexander Clark
