BENTON HARBOR, MI – An ordeal suffered by a Black motorist named Dakarai Larriett—subjected by Michigan State Police to a “humiliating traffic stop” in Benton Harbor earlier this year—has led to Larriett suing Michigan State Police, notes a recent article from The Root, written by Candace McDuffie.
The article describes how Larriett has claimed he was being racially profiled when police officers, George Kanyuh and his partner Matthew Okaiye, pulled Larriett over in his Cadillac SUV.
Larriett charges the troopers—according to the article—“made fun of his name, and subjected him to homophobic remarks.”
In the police-worn body camera footage of the incident, officer George Kanyuh repeatedly accused Larriett of being “under the influence when they stopped him.”
In the footage, Larriett repeatedly denies there ever being any alcohol in his system to begin with but still, Kanyuh chuckles at Larriett’s responses and says, “Hop out for me, I’m going to verify, okay?”
The footage shows the officer ordering Larriett go through a series of tests to prove he was not under the influence. After nearly 10 minutes and having successfully completed the multiple tests, Larriett is asked by Officer Kanyuh to rank how sober he feels on a scale of zero to five with five being “the most drunk or high he’s ever been.”
Larriett, details The Root article, asks about the relevance of Kanyuh’s question after Larriett was successfully able to pass the tests Kanyuh performed—except for Kanyuh’s request of counting backwards from 99 to 81 in which Larriett had ultimately stopped at 89.
The Root notes at this point in the footage, Larriett ultimately states, “I have not had any alcohol.”
Then, Kanyuh asks, “How about marijuana? Because you have had that.”
To this accusation, Larriett states in the footage that he has also not had marijuana.
In the footage, Kanyuh goes back to his patrol vehicle to which he can be heard saying to his partner Matthew Okaiye, “I don’t know what he’s on. I’m going to assume it’s weed and alcohol.”
The article describes that despite there being “no apparent proof that Larriett was under the influence” of anything, he was ultimately handcuffed and transported to a hospital where he was to be tested, again, for drugs and alcohol.
According to the article, after being taken to the hospital, Larriett was then taken to jail even though his alcohol test came back negative.
The Root cites a statement that Larriett made to the Metro Times in which he explained “how things somehow went from bad to worse.”
Larriett explained in his statement to the Metro Times that police performed a “scan of his stomach” before they accused him of “trying to smuggle drugs into the jail by way of ingestion of a bag of drugs.”
According to McDuffie, Larriett also explained to the Metro Times that he suffered “an extremely humiliating moment…where I was forced to defecate publicly while Trooper Kanyuh yelled at me not to flush.”
McDuffie writes how Larriett was initially “charged with operating under the influence of a controlled substance.”
However, prosecutors dismissed the case “due to lack of evidence and the unlawful nature of the stop and arrest,” according to a federal complaint filed by Larriett’s attorney, Shawndrica N. Simmons.
Larriett filed his lawsuit against the Michigan State Police last Wednesday.
