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By The Vanguard
MEMPHIS, TN — A man here—amid a U.S. Justice Dept. investigation of the Memphis Police Dept. announced this month—is claiming a Memphis Police officer “raped” him during a traffic stop.
According to WREG TV, Deaundra Billingsley has filed a lawsuit against the Memphis Police, charging he was wrongfully stopped, detained and raped by an officer in Binghampton in 2019.
Billingsley, said WREG TV, claims the incident happened after he pulled over to talk with a friend who was also patted down, stating, “They just jumped out the car, and he slapped his hands on the hood and was like ‘Hands on the hood, now’ never asked me my name,” Billingsley said.
“He took a finger in my anus and said he was searching for drugs,” Billingsley added.
“You determine excessive force based on if the amount of force was unreasonable for the circumstance. In my client’s case, it certainly was,” said Billingsley’s attorney Jake Brown “They inserted a finger into his anus without following the proper statute.”
WREG TV reported, “Brown says while marijuana was found on Billingsley’s friend, officers found no drugs on Billingsley and eventually he was let go.
“Complaints of situations like this are what prompted the U.S. Department of Justice to announce a civil rights investigation into the city of Memphis and the Memphis Police Dept. to ‘determine whether there is a practice or pattern of conduct that violates the constitution,’” said WREG TV.
Billingsley and his attorney believe the federal investigation into MPD is warranted to end a culture that disproportionately impacts Black and brown people,” the WREG TV story noted.
“[The MPD] has a pattern of treating certain communities in this city as less than, entitled to fewer rights and less protection, and that is not what the law says,” attorney Brown said.
“I shouldn’t have to die for my voice to be heard,” Billingsley told WREG TV. “I don’t want to be the next Tyre Nichols or George Floyd. I need my story to be heard while I’m still breathing.”
