drexel university

Mario the Magnificent, mascot of Drexel University

(Eric Berg/wikimedia commons)

A Philadelphia man who claimed he was falsely arrested as the result of lies by Drexel University police in an alleged racial profiling incident will get another shot at suing the school.

A state Superior Court panel gave Troy Demby that chance this week by reversing a Philadelphia judge's dismissal of the complaint he filed against the school and its cops over a December 2011 incident on campus that involved his brother.

In an opinion by President Judge Emeritus Kate Ford Elliott, the state judges concluded that Demby had made at least a preliminary case to keep pressing his false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and negligence claims.

Demby, who is black, claims his brother Earl and another black man, Walter Johnson, were walking on the Drexel campus when a Drexel police officer began tracking their movements on closed-circuit security cameras. The men tried to open doors to several buildings that were open to the public.

Videos of the incident show the men weren't doing anything illegal, even though university police would later claim they were trying to pry the doors open with screwdrivers, Troy Demby said. Nevertheless, campus police were summoned and one officer rammed Johnson with a cruiser, pinning him against a wall and seriously injuring him, the suit states. Johnson had tried to flee the police.

Earl Demby immediately surrendered and was soon released. He identified himself to school police as Troy, who wasn't at the scene. Troy Demby claims the university officers falsified their reports of the incident, prompting the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office to arrest him on trumped-up charges including attempted burglary. Those counts were dismissed after prosecutors viewed video of the incident, however, Troy Demby contends.

In reviving the lawsuit, Ford Elliott's court concluded that more legal proceedings are warranted to determine if Troy Demby's allegations are valid. If his claims are proven to be true, the behavior of the university police "was beyond the bounds of all decency," she wrote.