A Colorado county will pay $800,000 to motorists stopped on I-70 solely because they fit a drug courier profile that targeted blacks and Hispanics.
The payment settles a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of 402 people against Eagle County, 100 miles west of Denver. Each vehicle stopped by the deputies will get about $2,500, although the ACLU hasn't been able to find everyone. The settlement - thought to be the largest in the country for such a case - should send a message to law enforcement agencies that race-based policing will not be tolerated, ACLU attorneys said Thursday."The bottom line was by applying this profile, hundreds of motorists were pulled over where there was no indication that they had done anything wrong," said David Miller, legal director of ACLU.
Of the 402 people stopped between August 1988 and August 1990 on I-70 between Eagle and Glenwood Springs, none was ticketed or arrested for drugs, said Miller.
"They were pulled over because of their races," he said. Miller said Eagle County sheriff's deputies where involved in a federal traffic enforcement program.
Eagle County officials said the decision to settle the case was economic and made by the county's insurance carrier, which paid the settlement. Eagle County Sheriff A.J. Johnson apologized, saying, "It is unfortunate that racism became the issue between us and self-interest."
Jhenita Whitfield, who is black and one of the plaintiffs, said she and her sister, who is in the Navy, were stopped May 5, 1989, while driving through Eagle County from San Diego with four infants. She said she was told that she failed to signal properly before changing lanes. The deputy then asked to search her car. She consented.
"I didn't want any hassle," she said. "I didn't feel I had a choice. The kids were hungry and one had to go to the bathroom. I figured, let's do it and get . . . out of here."
If some of the plaintiffs can't be found, the remaining money will be donated to a charitable organization that is fighting the same cause, said Miller.
David Lane, the lead attorney on the case, said, "The law said they want to hit drug dealers where it hurt . . . and that's in the pocketbook by seizing money. And that's sort of the position that we have taken here," he said. "With those law enforcement agencies who wish to violate the constitutional rights of the citizens of the state of Colorado, we are going to hit them where it hurts . . . and that's in the pocketbook," he said.
The agreement calls for the dismissal of the case and requires the sheriff's office to stop the program. It also demands that police not stop, seize or search a person "unless there is some objective, reasonable suspicion that the person has done something wrong," Lane said.