Civil Rights Lawsuit Challenges the Illegal Mass Arrest of 60+ Partygoers for Less Than an Ounce of Marijuana in Cartersville, Georgia
Today, the Southern Center for Human Rights and the Merchant Law Firm, PC are filing suit against the City of Cartersville, Georgia, and select employees of the Cartersville Police Department, Bartow-Cartersville Drug Task Force, and Bartow County Sheriff’s Office on behalf of seven plaintiffs and other putative class members. The suit challenges the mass detention, search, and arrest of over sixty students, college graduates, and military servicemen attending a birthday party at a private residence in Cartersville, Georgia, on December 30th, 2017. Plaintiffs seek damages and declaratory relief on behalf of a class of all visitors who were detained, arrested, and charged with crimes that were dismissed just 12 days later.
In the early hours of December 31st, Cartersville Police Officers were dispatched to an apartment complex near the private residence after reports of gunshots (which they found no evidence of). Despite their car windows being up, officers claimed to have somehow smelled marijuana as they grew closer to the residence. Bolstered by a city policy that allows warrantless home entry on the mere basis of purported marijuana odors, officers entered the private residence without consent, a warrant, or probable cause.
Once inside, the officers found less than an ounce of marijuana. Though the officers could not tie the marijuana to any of the partygoers, they detained and searched everyone at the party. These searches yielded no drugs or contraband, but an officer announced that everyone was going to jail anyway. In total, sixty-four putative class members were arrested and taken to the Bartow County Jail for allegedly possessing less than an ounce of marijuana. Of those 64, 50 were African-American, 10 were white, 3 were Latino, and 1 Native American.
“Cartersville and Bartow County officers swarmed a predominantly black and brown house party, and arrested everyone because of a small amount of marijuana. This mass arrest wasted taxpayer dollars and undermined the public’s faith in unbiased policing,” said SCHR Senior Staff Attorney Atteeyah Hollie.
Upon arriving at the jail, everyone – including some persons as young as 17 — were stripped-searched in front of multiple officers, and placed in crowded and freezing cold holding tanks, where they stayed for 1-3 days without access to phones, the courts, or counsel. Some were placed in solitary confinement when they complained about their treatment. The solitary cells were so cold that some people wrapped toilet paper around their appendages, or exercised in place to stay warm. One person who experiences seizures informed a jail nurse of her condition, but did not receive her anti-seizure medication until the third day of her detention. A pregnant woman was denied prenatal pills and received no care when she vomited repeatedly in a holding cell garbage can. A diabetic received a dosage of insulin that exacerbated his condition.
“It’s a different type of hurt when you get arrested for something you didn’t do,” plaintiff Nija Guider told The Appeal. Guider lost her job as a result of the arrest, and had to resort to food pantries to feed her young son while she spent two and a half months looking for a new job.
Nija Guider and her son.
“Imagine being arrested simply for attending a party,” said SCHR Staff Attorney Ebony Brown. “Then, imagine being subjected to a dehumanizing strip-search in front of multiple people, and forced into a crowded, freezing cage for days on end, away from your loved ones, your children, and your source of income. It is anything but inconsequential.”
Twelve days after the arrests, the Bartow County District Attorney dismissed the charges. The arrests had already been highly publicized — mugshots were available online — and multiple people lost jobs or had to take drug tests to keep them. Others had potential scholarships affected, military enlistment deferred, and suffered public ridicule, online harassment, and humiliation. Many partygoers had never been arrested before. Some plaintiffs report that they are now fearful, and no longer trust, law enforcement because of this incident.
“Police should know better than this. These arrests went well beyond sloppy police work; they were unconstitutional. They arrested everybody at a party, literally everyone, without regard to proximity and without even posing questions to individuals,” said SCHR Senior Attorney Gerry Weber.