September 12th 2023.
Jacques LaPread, a Clearwater, Florida Black man, has filed two federal lawsuits against the Clearwater Police Department, accusing them of racially profiling him. It all began in June 2019 when LaPread was arrested by three officers—Kyle Bingham, Michael Buis, and Henry Giles—on a case of mistaken identity.
The police officers had been searching for a suspect accused of burglary and credit card fraud. That same day, a woman reported a car burglary in which she lost her valuables including credit cards, gift cards, and IDs. Activity on two of the stolen cards showed a purchase from a Speedway Gas Station on McMullen Booth Road and an over $200 purchase from a nearby Walgreens—both of which LaPread had visited.
Although LaPread had only made a $20 withdrawal from the ATM and held the door open for the officers, one of them still accused him of looking “suspicious” and ran his license plate. Consequently, LaPread was arrested at his home that evening.
Following a five-month investigation, the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney’s Office concluded that the suspect could not be adequately identified and opted not to file charges against LaPread. In light of this, the State Attorney Bruce Bartlett commented that they were “very uncomfortable with the identification of this individual that had been arrested.”
The arrest had dire consequences for LaPread, as the professional in information technology was up for a promotion at his cybersecurity job but was subsequently denied due to the incident. He remarked, “I’m pretty much starting from scratch again, all because of this.”
LaPread filed a lawsuit against Clearwater’s then-Police Chief Dan Slaughter after the two parties failed to come to an agreement outside of court. The case was initially filed in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Civil Court, but has since been moved to federal court. LaPread also filed a lawsuit in June against the Clearwater Police Department and the arresting officers.
The officers underwent an internal investigation, which resulted in zero punishment but rather reprimands, according to Clearwater Police spokesperson Rob Shaw. Bingham and Giles remain employed in law enforcement, but Buis left the department for unrelated reasons. Shaw refrained from providing any more information due to pending litigation.
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