Federal judge circumvents allegation of racial profiling during traffic stop in Maine

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A federal judge will allow the use of evidence from a traffic stop on Interstate 95 in January 2019 in a criminal case, even though a Maine State Police soldier has targeted the driver based on his race.

A prosecutor has dismissed another criminal case regarding a judgment in August 2019 after a cruiser microphone captured Private John Darcy describing the black man he was arresting as “looking like a thug.” Other attorneys and the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine have begun to actively challenge other arrests made by Darcy and accuse him of serial racial profiling.

Darcy, who is white, testified in one of those cases in July, denied stopping drivers based on their race.

That hearing centered around the arrest in January 2019, when Darcy stopped another black man on the Maine Turnpike for allegedly failing to quickly signal a lane change and cut a tractor-trailer. He eventually called a drug detector dog and searched the handler, who admitted he had drugs. Damon Fagan of Presque Isle, who was 43 at the time, was charged with possession with intent to distribute heroin.

Defense attorney challenged the legality of this traffic stop and filed a motion to suppress evidence in 2019. U.S. District Judge D. Brock Hornby denied the motion and concluded at the time that a reasonable police officer would have had a probable reason to arrest Fagan for a dangerous lane change, even if the soldier had misinterpreted the law in this case as to when a traffic light is required. The judge agreed to reconsider that decision after Darcy’s taped comments came to light last year, and he called the July hearing.

Hornby ultimately denied the petition for the second time in an order issued Thursday. He pointed to a 1996 Supreme Court ruling that generally officers can stop any vehicle as long as they have reasonable grounds to believe that a traffic violation has occurred. Hornby called racial profiling “wrong,” but said the legal question he needed to answer was whether Darcy lied when he said he arrested Fagan for a dangerous lane change, and not if Darcy had initially targeted Fagan because of his race.

“So I don’t need to decide… whether Darcy stopped drivers in general and Fagan in particular on the basis of racial criteria,” Hornby wrote in his decision. “Instead, I will assume for the purposes of this ruling that Darcy used racial criteria (Darcy denies this interpretation of his comments).”

Despite this, Hornby found the reason for the traffic shutdown itself credible. Darcy explained to the driver why he was stopping him, Hornby wrote, and the cruiser dashcam video did not contradict him.

“Assuming Darcy picked Fagans’ vehicle for improper reasons as he crossed the York tollgate, he waited 3 minutes before finding a base to stop him.… (It’s) exaggerated to conclude that his statements to Fagan about safety were just an effort to cover up racial profiling, “Hornby wrote.” Therefore, whatever Darcy’s personal motivation, I don’t find that Darcy lied in giving the explanation of the dangerous lane change and I find his testimony credible. “

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Scott, who is pursuing the case, said he had no comment on the order.

Defense attorney David Bobrow said he was frustrated with the judge’s ruling. He did not say what his next steps would be in the case.

“It’s frustrating when the court recognizes racial profiling but doesn’t equate it with the agent’s veracity,” Bobrow wrote in an email. “We maintain the position that there was no evidence presented which supported the base of the officers to stop the motor vehicle.”

The Maine state police chief recently said that an internal review of more than 1,000 traffic stops by Darcy did not reveal a pattern of racial profiling, but the agency has not released any details about conclusions. A staff attorney said Maine State Police had no public record of discipline against Darcy related to the traffic stop. He then denied a request under the Freedom of Access Act for records included in the review, citing exceptions to the Public Records Act for certain personnel records.

Other lawyers are also asking judges to suppress evidence from traffic stops and order the government to produce Darcy’s law enforcement records. It is not clear whether this order will have an impact on their efforts.

In one case, the Federal Office of Human Rights Defenders filed in April challenging at least 11 traffic stops led by Darcy. Daphne Hallett Donahue, the public defender, wrote in her petition that these cases all involved people of color and that the judgments appeared to be based on fabricated reasons or selective enforcement.

She said she believed this model extended to the state’s proactive criminal law enforcement team, which includes Darcy and focuses on intercepting illegal drugs entering Maine. , and she made a wide request for information about their work.

These are probably just a few of the many examples of Trooper Darcy’s predatory, race-based policing strategies, Donahue wrote. There are likely many other people of color driving northbound in the state of Maine who have been the subject of this type of unconstitutional search and seizure, but who are ultimately allowed to continue their journey because of the searches. do not give anything.

Darcy testified to her recorded comments earlier this month in a separate case. In this case, the defense attorney filed a motion to suppress evidence from one of his traffic stops. The judge has yet to render a decision.

When I used the word thug I was referring to someone involved in criminal activity, Darcy said on the witness stand. The point of what I was trying to say was that race wouldn’t matter in anything we do.

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