Black man alleges he was stopped, detained and raped by Memphis police in 2019

Samuel Hardiman
Memphis Commercial Appeal

A Black Memphian alleges in a federal lawsuit that two members of the Memphis Police Department stopped him and conducted a body-cavity search without probable cause. 

The Memphis Police Department, amid ongoing scrutiny of its use of force, is conducting an internal affairs investigation into the matter, according to the lawsuit. 

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Last week, Deaundra Billingsley filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, the Western District of Tennessee, that alleges two MPD officers stopped him at the intersection of Red Oak Street and Mimosa Avenue in Binghampton while he spoke to the son of a female acquaintance on Aug. 5, 2019. Both the young man and Billingsley were on foot.

The two officers, who are identified as John Doe I, a white man,  and John Doe II, a Asian or Middle-Eastern man, pulled up and demanded Billingsley put his hands on the hood of their patrol car. They also detained the boy Billingsley was speaking with, the complaint said. The lawsuit, which was filed by the Apperson Crump law firm, identifies the young man  as D.M. 

Billingsley did not consent to being searched or detained and told the officers as much, according to the suit. He was handcuffed and pushed face down into the backseat of the patrol car. One officer, identified as Doe I, allegedly pulled down Billingsley's pants, reached into his underwear and stuck one or two fingers into Billingsley's anus. 

"At some point during Doe I’s search of Mr. Billingsley’s person, Doe II said to Doe I, 'Did you check his asshole good?,'" the lawsuit claims. It alleges that such a search of Billingsley constitutes rape under Tennessee law. 

Billingsley, according to the complaint, was then taken out of the patrol car and left on the curb for nearly two hours. During this time a sizable crowd of residents gathered nearby. Billingsley continued to yell that he was being detained without cause, which annoyed the second, unidentified police officer . 

More: In Memphis police excessive force cases, can the department regulate itself?

"Doe II then pointed to the bag of what appeared to be cannabis on the hood of the patrol car and, [implied] as explanation for why Mr. Billingsley should stop talking, threatened, 'I can write this up how I want to write it, make it however I want to make it.' Doe II was unmistakably threatening to falsely charge Mr. Billingsley with possession of an illicit substance," the lawsuit said.

The first officer, the one who allegedly stuck his fingers inside Billingsley, then shouted to his partner and tapped on his body-worn camera. 

"After approximately another hour, by which time a sizable crowd had gathered, the officers released Mr. Billingsley. They had never even asked for his name," the complaint said. "Sometime thereafter, the officers released D.M. without charge, got back in their patrol car, and drove away."

The lawsuit alleges that such a body-cavity search goes against police department policy. 

"While MPD policies nominally and officially require that detention and searches be supported by probable cause and that any body-cavity search be conducted only upon a signed warrant and by a licensed physician or registered nurse in a private and secure location, certain regular customs, patterns, and practices—of the MPD generally and of officers operating out of the Tillman Station particularly—undermined and contravened the policy’s written letter," the complaint said. 

The suit asks for a jury trial and that Billingsley receive $850,000 in damages. 

Jacob Brown, one of Billingsley's attorneys, said the incident shows larger issues within the Memphis Police Department. 

"This kind of thing it doesn't happen in other parts of the city. And it doesn't happen to persons other than Black men. They are routinely the target for this sort of treatment by the police," Brown said. "This happened in Binghampton. If you cross Poplar Avenue, over into Chickasaw Gardens or East Parkway into East End where I live, this sort of thing does not happen. Police do not just pull up and start searching people." 

Brown noted a pair of recent Memphis City Council decisions — voting to remove a ballot referendum regarding police residency and declining to endorse hiring 700 more officers for the department. 

"This incident is indicative of a serious problem in the Memphis Police Department and how their officers view private citizens from certain disadvantaged communities, their constitutional rights," Brown said. "It was just last week that the mayor was asking the city council to give him something like 600 more police officers.... The council members are more in touch, I think, with the opinions within certain areas of Memphis. The fact is in a lot of those communities, the people want to see the city get its police department in order first. Then, we can talk about hiring more officers." 

MPD Lt. Karen Rudolph said, "As with any ongoing litigation, we are unable to make any comments related to this case." 

Brown said he believes there is body camera footage of Billingsley being penetrated by MPD, but an Open Records Act request regarding the complaint was not returned due to the pending internal affairs investigation. 

Samuel Hardiman covers Memphis city government and politics for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by email at samuel.hardiman@commercialappeal.com.