Protesters stand on overturned trash cans and newspaper stands during a protest reacting to the inauguration of President Donald Trump on January 20 in Washington, DC. | Getty ACLU sues D.C. police over alleged mistreatment during Trump inauguration protests

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department on behalf of four individuals who claim they were mistreated by officers amid protests in January marking the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

The suit’s plaintiffs — two protesters, a photojournalist and a legal observer — allege that they were illegally detained, pepper sprayed and denied access to food, water and bathroom facilities, among other offenses. The lawsuit names the District of Columbia, Metropolitan Police Chief Peter Newsham and 170 unnamed police officers and supervisors as defendants.


Trump’s inauguration drew massive crowds to Washington, including the president’s supporters and people upset by his policy proposals and rhetoric. Demonstrations in downtown Washington quickly turned violent on Inauguration Day, with protesters lighting fires and engaging in conflict with police dressed in riot gear. All four of the defendants in the suit filed Wednesday claim they were not involved in any illegal activity on the day of the protests.

A copy of the filing document was posted online by The Washington Post.

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All four plaintiffs accused Metropolitan Police of using pepper spray or tear gas on them without justification, in one case allegedly simply because a plaintiff was standing near an area where protesters were being detained.

Shay Horse, the photojournalist plaintiff, and Elizabeth Lagesse, one of the protester plaintiffs, said they were handcuffed so tightly by police that the former lost feeling in some of his fingers that did not return for months and the latter bled from her wrists. Horse and Milo Gonzalez, the other protester named as a plaintiff, claim they were “subjected to intrusive, humiliating and unjustified manual rectal probing and grabbing of their testicles.”

Lagesse, Horse and Gonzalez also accused Metropolitan Police of “unreasonably” denying them access to food, water and bathroom facilities while they were detained on a street corner and of “unnecessarily prolonging the arrest process” in order to keep detainees in a state of anxiety, hunger, thirst and other discomfort.

The lawsuit lists 16 different claims against Metropolitan Police, including intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault and battery, false arrest and excessive use of force.

In a statement, Metropolitan Police spokeswoman Karimah Bilal did not directly address the charges outlined in the ACLU suit but instead drew a distinction between the “thousands of individuals” who protested peacefully on Inauguration Day and “another group of individuals who chose to engage in criminal acts.” The second group left at least six officers injured, she said, and “the bulk of them” have been indicted by a grand jury and are facing prosecution.

“As with any pending criminal or civil matter, we will continue to support and respect the formal legal process. Moreover, all instances of use of force by officers and allegations of misconduct will be fully investigated,” Bilal said.

