A Muslim male is suing Van Buren Township Police and four officers claiming that the pat-down by a female officer after he was stopped for drunk driving violated his constitutional rights.
He also complained that three male officers laughed and joked as they watched the female officer put her hands down the front and back of his pants during a pat down.
On May 25, Ahmad Mohammad Kasham, 24, of Ypsilanti filed a civil rights complaint in U.S. District Court in Detroit against the VBT Police Department, Officer Jessica Shippe, Sgt. Michael Papin, and Officers John Doe 1 and 2.
He is seeking a jury trial and an unnamed sum for all compensatory and punitive damages and equitable and injunctive relief to which the court finds him entitled, together with costs, interest, and attorney’s fees.
The complaint states Kasham is “of Middle Eastern national origin, Muslim/Arab-American male, and an adherent of the religion of Islam.”
He was stopped by Officer Shippe, a Caucasian female, on July 10, 2009, on suspicion of being intoxicated.
In the complaint, Kasham said he was the designated driver for his friends who had been consuming alcohol that night. He said after Shippe stopped his 2007 Dodge Charger on the South Service Drive near Beckley, she requested backup and “four additional Caucasian male officers were on scene and out of their vehicles.”
(Later in the suit the complaint says it was three other officers plus Shippe at the scene.)
Officer Shippe conducted four field sobriety tests and, according to the complaint, put in her report that he failed the tests. The complaint alleges the videotape from the police cruiser demonstrates he passed all the tests. (The VBT police report of the incident states Kasham passed one of the tests.)
The complaint is also at odds with the police report on another detail. Kasham said he had consumed one shot within a minute of leaving the restaurant (Diamondback Saloon) and he was stopped while the liquor was still on his breath. The police report quotes Kasham as saying he had two double shots, which he amended to just two shots.
The preliminary breath test registered .098 blood alcohol content. In Michigan .08 BAC is considered intoxicated. He was placed under arrest, handcuffed, and Officer Shippe searched Kasham’s person.
“A Caucasian female officer placed her hands down the front and rear of Muslim, Arab-American male’s pants,” the complaint emphasized.
Kasham was then transported to VBT PD where he was given a chemical test that indicated a .06 BAC and falling, the complaint said. The police report said it was .07 and then .06.
He was charged with operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, a second offense which mandated the confiscation of his license plate. He also was cited for improper lane usage. He was photographed, fingerprinted, posted a $200 bond and was released.
On or about Sept. 29, 2009 the entire case against Kasham was dismissed, according to court documents.
Kasham said as a direct result of what occurred, his parents immediately disowned him and asked him to leave their home as a result of a female touching his private parts, as his religious beliefs prohibit a woman from even looking at a man between the waist and knees, according to court documents.
All this has brought extreme humiliation, embarrassment, and mental and emotional distress, the complaint claims.
He said the other three officers should have intervened in the search of his person to protect his constitutional rights, when he was unable to do so himself.
They also violated Kasham’s Eighth Amendments rights by exhibiting deliberate indifference to his customs and religious beliefs, the complaint said.
Kasham also claims Officer Shippe committed Criminal Sexual Conduct by placing her hands down his pants but she was never charged or arrested for the crime.
“The Defendant Officers knew or should have known the Plaintiff was a Middle Eastern, Muslim Arab-American and permitted a white female officer to conduct the search of his person in the Plaintiff’s private region while four white male officers looked on and laughed,” the complaint said.
“The actions and antics of the Defendant officers on that night clearly demonstrate that their motives were racially and ethnically motivated against the Plaintiff so as to inflict extreme humiliation, embarrassment and terror upon him,” the complaint said.
An exhibit included in the complaint was a letter from Julie Pomerville-Steiner, MA, LMSW, CAC-1, of Life’s Way Family Counseling and Education in Ann Arbor, where Kasham was said to have started attending therapy sessions in November 2009.
She said Kasham operates a dry cleaning business as well as working at his uncle’s store. He began therapy with symptoms of anxiety and depression and was having difficulty sleeping and eating.
She wrote he was having trouble getting up to face the day and had seen a rise in his irritability and anger. He reported his anxiety level rises when he sees a police car.
Steiner wrote that these symptoms began after the incident with the VBT police. She said the white male officers stood by and laughed and joked about the female officer’s handling of the situation and, “Apparently it was made known that the female officer was new to the police force.”
She said Kasham reported feeling violated and ridiculed.
Officer Shippe’s official report on the incident was verified by Sgt. Papin.
She states that at 2:15 a.m. on July 10, 2009, she was on routine patrol, travelling westbound on the South I-94 Service Drive near Beckley when she observed headlights travelling in her lane of travel. She said she saw a vehicle traveling toward her patrol vehicle heading eastbound in the westbound lane.
She said she activated her overhead lights and spotlight and the vehicle weaved into the eastbound lanes of travel. She turned her vehicle around and made a traffic stop.
Shippe said Kasham told her he was traveling the wrong way on the service drive because he thought it was a one-way road.
Her report said Kasham stated he had just left the Diamondback Saloon. She said she asked him if he had any alcohol to drink and she quotes him as saying, “I had two double shots, I mean two shots.”
Her report states that while speaking with Kasham she could smell a strong odor of intoxicants coming from his person. Also, his eyes appeared red and watery. In the rear passenger compartment of the vehicle she located an open case of beer, the report said.
Kasham’s attorneys are Lahn, Hall and Shand, PLLC, of Saline, represented by J. Geoffrey Lahn and David A. Shand.
U.S. District Court Judge Sean F. Cox will hear the case.