Current:Home > FinanceFeds open investigation into claims Baton Rouge police tortured detainees in "Brave Cave" -Elevate Capital Network
Feds open investigation into claims Baton Rouge police tortured detainees in "Brave Cave"
View
Date:2025-04-18 02:47:03
The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into claims that the police department for Baton Rouge, Louisiana, abused and tortured suspects, the FBI announced Friday.
Numerous lawsuits allege that the Street Crimes Unit of the Baton Rouge Police Department abused drug suspects at a recently shuttered narcotics processing center — an unmarked warehouse nicknamed the "Brave Cave."
The FBI said experienced prosecutors and agents are "reviewing allegations that members of the department may have abused their authority."
Baton Rouge police said in a statement that its chief, Murphy Paul "met with FBI officials and requested their assistance to ensure an independent review of these complaints."
In late August, Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome announced that the "Brave Cave" was being permanently closed, and that the Street Crimes Unit was also being disbanded.
This comes as a federal lawsuit filed earlier this week by Ternell Brown, a grandmother, alleges that police officers conducted an unlawful strip-search on her.
The lawsuit alleges that officers pulled over Brown while she was driving with her husband near her Baton Rouge neighborhood in a black Dodge Charger in June. Police officers ordered the couple out of the car and searched the vehicle, finding pills in a container, court documents said. Brown said the pills were prescription and she was in "lawful possession" of the medication. Police officers became suspicious when they found she was carrying two different types of prescription pills in one container, the complaint said.
Officers then, without Brown's consent or a warrant, the complaint states, took her to the unit's "Brave Cave." The Street Crimes Unit used the warehouse as its "home base," the lawsuit alleged, to conduct unlawful strip searches.
Police held Brown for two hours, the lawsuit reads, during which she was told to strip, and after an invasive search, "she was released from the facility without being charged with a crime."
"What occurred to Mrs. Brown is unconscionable and should never happen in America," her attorney, Ryan Keith Thompson, said in a statement to CBS News.
Baton Rouge police said in its statement Friday that it was "committed to addressing these troubling accusations," adding that it has "initiated administrative and criminal investigations."
The Justice Department said its investigation is being conducted by the FBI, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Louisiana.
- In:
- Police Officers
- FBI
- Louisiana
Cara Tabachnick is a news editor for CBSNews.com. Contact her at [email protected]
veryGood! (12777)
Related
- $73.5M beach replenishment project starts in January at Jersey Shore
- Harry Styles Was Considered for This Role in Mean Girls
- Summer House's Sam Feher and Kory Keefer Break Up After Over a Year of Dating
- More CEOs fear their companies won’t survive 10 years as AI and climate challenges grow, survey says
- Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear ready to campaign for Harris-Walz after losing out for spot on the ticket
- Israel terrorist ramming attack in Raanana leaves 1 dead and 2 Palestinian suspects detained
- Dangerously cold temps continue to blast much of the US, keeping schools closed and flights grounded
- 100 days into the Israel-Hamas war, family of an Israeli hostage says they forgot about us
- Travis Hunter, the 2
- List of top Emmy Award winners
Ranking
- Olympic men's basketball bracket: Results of the 5x5 tournament
- 150M under weather alerts, 6 dead as 'dangerous cold' has US in its clutches: Live updates
- Africa’s biggest oil refinery begins production in Nigeria with the aim of reducing need for imports
- 'It's trash': Dolphins cope with owning NFL's longest playoff win drought after Lions' victory
- Senate begins final push to expand Social Security benefits for millions of people
- Mauritius lifts storm alert after cyclone passes. French island of Reunion is also assessing damage
- How cold is it going to get today? See where record-low temperatures will hit during the winter storm
- Ahead of the Iowa caucuses, Republican candidates tap voters' economic frustrations
Recommendation
Civic engagement nonprofits say democracy needs support in between big elections. Do funders agree?
Norway halts adoptions from 4 Asian countries pending an investigation, newspaper reports
AP VoteCast: Iowa caucusgoers want big changes, see immigration as more important than the economy
Switzerland hosts President Zelenskyy and offers to host a peace summit for Ukraine
51-year-old Andy Macdonald puts on Tony Hawk-approved Olympic skateboard showing
Who Is the Green Goblin at the 2023 Emmy Awards? Here's How a Reality Star Stole the Red Carpet Spotlight
Will Kalen DeBoer succeed at Alabama? Four keys for Nick Saban's successor
Six takeaways from the return of the Emmys