Biker sues state trooper over stop

Off the Wire News
General News DAVIDSON COUNTY

A Nashville motorcyclist has sued a state trooper, claiming he was pulled over and roughed him up because the trooper thought he was someone else.

In the lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court, Richard Jeffrey Laude claims Tennessee Highway Patrolman Jimmy D. Knowles "violently pulled Laude off his motorcycle" and struck him several times during a traffic stop in October 2008.

Knowles had been looking for a group of motorcycles that sped by him earlier that day, Laude said in his suit.

Even though Laude was driving a different type of bike and wearing clothes that didn't match the speeding cyclists, the lawsuit claims, Knowles pulled Laude over in Wilson County thinking he was one of the bikers he had tried unsuccessfully to catch.

Citizens who saw the traffic stop told Knowles he had the wrong person, the lawsuit claims, but Knowles still charged Laude with reckless endangerment. A judge later dismissed the charge.

Tennessee Highway Patrol spokesman Mike Browning said Knowles was suspended for five days without pay in connection with the incident.

Laude is seeking unspecified damages.

— CLAY CAREY
THE TENNESSEAN

Original article...

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100225/NEWS01/2250338/1001/NEWS