Lexington community members joined attorneys and the National Police Accountability Project to urge a federal appeals court to consider evidence in a civil rights lawsuit against the police department alleging a pattern of violent, racist and unconstitutional policing practices. 

A Wednesday filing asks the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to hold oral arguments to consider evidence presented at a 2022 hearing and legal arguments that the U.S. District Court overlooked the evidence in dismissing the plaintiffs’ claims. 

Attorneys for the Black Lexington residents who claim they have been stopped at checkpoints, falsely arrested and retaliated against by members of the police department say the plaintiffs had proper standing, their claims were proper and some claims were dismissed without properly analyzing evidence. 

“For those reasons, Malcolm Stewart, Darious Harris, and Robert Harris respectfully request that the judgment of the district court be reversed and the case remanded for further proceedings,” the May 28 appellant’s brief states. 

The original lawsuit, filed in August 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Missisisppi, documented conduct by the former white police chief, Sam Dobbins, who was fired in 2022 after bragging on a recording about killing 13 people while working as a law enforcement officer and using racial and homophobic slurs. 

That complaint also shows the conduct of his successor, Chief Charles Henderson, who is Black and has overseen a department that allegedly is violent against residents and has used roadblocks to exclusively target Black neighborhoods. 

Lexington, located in one of the state’s poorest counties, has a population of less than 2,000 people and is 86% Black. The city’s mayor is white and its aldermen are Black. 

The original lawsuit plaintiffs are brothers Robert and Darius Harris, Malcolm Stewart, Eric Redmond and Peter Reeves. Dobbins, Henderson, the police department and the city were named as defendants in the lawsuit. Later, four police officers were added as defendants. 

“This case is about more than a few rogue officers — it’s about a police department functioning as a tool of racial control and abuse,” Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, said in a statement.

Attorneys from the organization, along with attorney Jill Collen Jefferson of JULIAN and others are representing the appellants.

Bonds said the violations have persisted and escalated, which underscores why the organization’s clients are continuing with the case and why it remains critical.  

In 2022, plaintiffs sought a temporary restraining order against the Lexington Police Department to prevent them from violating Black residents’ civil rights and prevent violence against them, but a federal judge denied it.

Over the next two years the district court dismissed a majority of the plaintiffs claims, and two plaintiffs remained with claims against the officers, Dobbins and Henderson. 

In January, U.S. District Judge Tom Lee approved an agreed judgment between plaintiff Redmond and the defendants and dismissed all claims brought by the remaining plaintiffs. This is the decision being appealed with the 5th Circuit Court. 

Since 2022, there have been other federal lawsuits brought by Lexington residents against Dobbins, Henderson, the city and the police department. Most of those remain active in the district court or the 5th Circuit. 

In a Wednesday statement, the National Police Accountability Project said the Lexington lawsuit by the five men is an example of an urgent need for local and federal action to stop law enforcement abuse in the South and across the country. 

Last week, the Trump administration rolled back federal oversight of police departments by ending consent decrees and halting investigations. 

The Justice Department under the Biden administration opened a civil rights investigation into the Lexington police, but it did not result in a consent decree. 

The New Orleans Police Department had a consent decree that lasted from 2011 to 2024.

Bonds said the Trump administration’s move is a “deliberate slap in the face to the memory of George Floyd” close to the 5-year anniversary of his death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. 

She also said the move is an attempt to disempower Black communities, shut down paths to accountability and silence resistance. 

“But let us be clear: We are not backing down. We are doubling down,” Bonds said.