Louisiana Voice

University of Virginia law professor Thomas Frampton on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Baton Rouge asking the court to stop what Frampton describes as the City of Baton Rouge’s retaliation against his freedom of speech. He argues that the city is trying to put him in jail for contempt of a proceeding that never existed.

The case arises out of a 2020 stop and search by Baton Rouge police officers of Louisiana resident Clarence Green and his younger brother, a juvenile. Only Clarence Green was charged with any crime. 

In a December 2020 order, federal judge Brian A. Jackson excoriated the government for its actions, writing that “the state agents in this case demonstrated a serious and wanton disregard for defendant’s constitutional rights, first by initiating a traffic stop on the thinnest of pretext, and then by haphazardly invading Defendant’s home (weapons drawn) to conduct an unjustified, warrantless search.” Body worn camera footage of the stop and search was entered into the public record, and all charges against Green were dismissed. 

Frampton, of the University of Virginia School of Law, stepped in to represent the Green family in a civil rights lawsuit against BRPD, and quickly settled the case for $35,000.

One of the officers involved in the stop and search, Ken Camallo, was demoted from sergeant to corporal and suspended two and one-half months, according to a STORY in The Baton Rouge Advocate on Wednesday.

On May 27, 2021, BRPD’s mistreatment of the Green Family first became a national news story. The CBS Evening News ran a story entitled “Baton Rouge reaches $35,000 settlement with family after police strip-searched teen and entered home without warrant.” 

The next day, the City of Baton Rouge filed a petition in Baton Rouge juvenile court, seeking to hold Professor Frampton in contempt of juvenile court for releasing the body-worn camera footage to CBS. In this context, contempt of court is punishable by up to six months in prison.

The city argued that Frampton had violated a Louisiana law that makes “records and reports concerning all matters or proceedings before the juvenile court” confidential. In its petition, the city explained that it had “received a substantial amount of negative correspondence from the public” after the CBS story, and so was taking action against Professor Frampton. 

But as Frampton argues in the lawsuit filed today, what the city describes is literally impossible – because there never was a matter or proceeding before the juvenile court. Mr. Green’s brother, the only juvenile in the video, was never charged with any crime, and no proceeding was ever started in the juvenile court.

For that reason, Frampton filed the lawsuit, asking the federal court to order the city to stop its course of action against him. He also filed a motion in state court under Louisiana’s Anti-SLAPP law – a law that allows a person to stop a case and seek attorneys’ fees when they are attacked for their free speech. Both are attached. 

Frampton is represented by a legal team that includes the Tulane Law School’s First Amendment Clinic, Jane Hogan of Hogan Attorneys, and William Most of Most & Associates.

Katie Schwartzmann, director of the Tulane Law School First Amendment Clinic, said, “Residents of Baton Rouge need to know when their police department engages in behavior that violates the law. For the city to seek to jail a lawyer for sharing information with the public is deeply troubling, not only because it violates the Constitution but also because it may prevent other Baton Rouge residents from coming forward about police misconduct.”

Attorney William Most added, “The City of Baton Rouge is trying to throw a law professor in jail for contempt of a proceeding that never existed. Baton Rouge citizens should be ashamed of their parish attorney’s office for seeking this expensive, retaliatory, nonsensical course of action.”