A Columbia University professor sues the Philadelphia police department over a questionable traffic stop.

Around half past midnight one Saturday in June, Marc Lamont Hill was dropping off a childhood friend in the Logan section of the city when a police car pulled up behind his black BMW.

One of the two officers in it, Richard DeCoatsworth - hailed as a hero when he survived a gunshot blast to the face in 2007 - motioned for Hill to move his car, which was stopped at 11th Street and Lindley Avenue.

Hill, 31, a Columbia University professor, author, and noted hip-hop intellectual, pointed to his friend's home, signaling that he was dropping him off, and the officers drove away.

In a federal civil rights lawsuit filed Tuesday, Hill claims the June 12 encounter didn't end there. It says DeCoatsworth and his unnamed partner later pulled Hill over and searched him and his car without a warrant, violating several constitutional rights.

Hill claims DeCoatsworth searched his pockets without a warrant, then pulled him out of the car by his left arm.

DeCoatsworth pushed Hill into his car, according to the lawsuit, and told him not to move or "he was going to jail." DeCoatsworth then pressed his left fist into Hill's back, causing him pain, the suit alleges. DeCoatsworth asked Hill whether he could afford the BMW and then went through Hill's checkbook, the suit alleges. Hill claims DeCoatsworth then questioned him about his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania while the other officer searched his car.

During the stop, according to the suit, that officer told Hill he was being stopped for "illegal discharge of a passenger and blocking the street."

The lawsuit was filed against the City of Philadelphia, DeCoatsworth, his partner, and the sergeant and captain of the 35th District, in which the stop occurred.

"It's a constitutional violation of an American's right to travel peacefully," Leonard Hill, a managing partner of Hill & Associates, said of the traffic stop. "He was stopped illegally. He was frisked illegally. He was stripped of his dignity. To ask him how he could afford his car, to look at his checkbook, and to ask him to explain what's a Ph.D. is just ridiculous."


Link:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_region/20101015_Columbia_professor_sues_Philadelphia_and_decorated_officer_over_traffic_stop.html