Oklahoma, Bandido’s Motorcycle Club sues Shawnee police and city, alleging police brutality and unlawful arrest

OFF THE WIRE
BY: ANN KELLEY
Source: newsok.com
The Bandido’s lawsuit stems from an incident after a Christmas party last year where police allege Bandido’s were fighting with a rival gang. Along with the police, they are suing the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office, the county jail and a hotel owner.
SHAWNEE — Members of the Bandido’s Motorcycle Club have filed a lawsuit claiming they were brutalized by police and wrongly arrested after a Christmas party last year in Shawnee.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Oklahoma City, alleges more than a dozen state law and constitutional rights violations. Along with attorney fees and at least $1 million in punitive damages, the Bandido’s want a written apology.
Bandido’s attorney Jonathan Sutton said his clients are not seeking attention, but are standing up for the constitutional rights of others.
“This is a case of law enforcement acting without restrictions the Constitution affords,” he said. “We’re doing this so they (police) understand that we have rights, and they can’t just do whatever they want.”
The lawsuit stems from the Dec. 20 arrests of 15 people affiliated with the club outside America’s Best Value Inn at Interstate 40 and Harrison Street.
Steve Reel, attorney with the Oklahoma Municipal League, said Wednesday he hadn’t had time to review the lawsuit, and declined to comment.
Suing are 15 Bandido’s members, their wives and girlfriends, along with the motorcycle club. The defendants include the city of Shawnee, City Manager Brian McDougal, the Shawnee Police Department, Police Chief Russell Frantz, the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Mike Booth, hotel owner Harry Patel and numerous others.
The club rented a hotel banquet room for a Christmas party. After the party, many of its patrons visited a club inside the hotel. Officers were called several hours later when a fight broke out in the parking lot, police reported. Two officers reported chasing several people wearing vests with biker club patches.
Police later told the media several people were arrested after a fight between rival motorcycle gangs, the Bandido’s and the Mongols Motorcycle Club.
Sutton said his clients are not a “gang,” but a club comprised of professional adults. One of the women arrested is an attorney.
The 15 were charged in Shawnee municipal court with misdemeanor obstructing justice. City prosecutor Mike Clover said there wasn’t enough evidence to warrant charges, and no indication that those arrested were involved with the fight reported outside the hotel.
Clover said he wasn’t comfortable with the way the arrests were handled.
“It was pretty much a mob scene that got out of hand,” Clover said. “The officers showed up and started opening hotel doors and probably shouldn’t have done that.”
He said he doesn’t think the two men in the fight were arrested.
Allegations in the 36-page lawsuit include:
•Police stormed into a motel room with guns drawn, screaming at those inside to get down on the floor. One woman claims an officer woke her up using the heel of his boot against her back and frisked her when she was only wearing a bra and panties. Another plaintiff said a different officer held his head to the ground with his foot.
•Authorities made everyone in the room go outside in 30-degree temperatures while they searched the room without a warrant or probable cause. Some were not allowed to put on coats or shoes.
•At the jail, three women were searched by male jailers, and both sexes were in a single cell with one toilet. One woman has a bladder disorder and was embarrassed about urinating in front of others. A jailer made a male plaintiff remove his genital piercings in front of him, and then ridiculed and humiliated him in front of others about the piercings.
•During their arrest and jail stay authorities accused them of being “gang members” and part of an “outlaw motorcycle gang.”

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