10-year-old Mississippi boy jailed for urinating in public

The full title to this story is actually "Mother of 10-year-old Mississippi boy jailed for urinating in public files $2 million lawsuit"

Reading this story had my head spinning.  What in the heck were those police officers thinking?  And then the judge and his sentence, seriously?  I have so many questions. 


www.al.com/news/2024/03/mother-of-10-year-old-mississippi-boy-jailed-for-urinating-in-public-files-2-million-lawsuit.html


The mother of a 10-year-old Mississippi boy who was arrested, jailed and at one point put on probation for urinating next to his mother’s car in a parking lot has filed a $2 million federal lawsuit against the city, police department and the individual officers involved.

The lawsuit, filed by the LaTonya Eason, is seeking damages for excessive use of force, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court.

Named as defendants are the Senatobia (Miss.) Police Department, police chief Richard Chandler, Lt. Zachary Jenkins, four unnamed police officers, and the City of Senatobia, a city of roughly 8,300 people located about 40 miles south of Memphis, Tenn.

Last August, the 10-year-old boy and his sister were waiting outside an attorney’s office in Senatobia while their mother conducted business inside. The boy told his sister he needed to use the restroom, but she pointed at a sign on the law firm door which read “No public bathroom,” according to the federal complaint.

Shortly thereafter, the boy told his sister he could not wait any longer and opened the door of his mother’s vehicle and relieved himself behind the door, “so as not to expose himself.”

A Senatobia police officer saw the boy and notified Eason, issuing a verbal reprimand. Eason also reprimanded her son “as any parent does to their child,” according to the lawsuit.

Eason thought the incident over, but Jenkins, accompanied by four other Senatobia police officers, arrived on the scene. Now, with five officers responding to a report of a 10-year-old urinating in public, Jenkins told Eason her son was being taken into custody and transported to jail.

Although not handcuffed, the child was placed in the back of a police cruiser and transported to the city jail, where he remained until being taken into Tate County (Miss.) Youth Court, where he was found to be a “child in need of services,” after which he was released back to Eason’s custody.

The child had to twice appear in youth court and was put on probation, with the judge further ordering him to meet with a probation officer once a month, take random drug tests, abide by an 8 p.m. curfew, and write a two-page book report about the late NBA star Kobe Bryant.

Eason, however, refused to sign the probation agreement and the case against her son was ultimately dropped.

But, according to the lawsuit and attorney Carlos Moore, the damage was already done.

“They have to pay this family for what they did,” Moore told WMC in Memphis. “This boy is still emotionally traumatized. He is receiving counseling. His mother has been through a lot. So, we’re here for justice.”

The lawsuit says Eason and her son, now 11, have “suffered embarrassment, harassment, PTSD, shock and other physical, emotional, and traumatizing injuries.”

Following the arrest, Chandler issued a statement calling the officers’ actions “an error in judgment,” and another statement from the police department said at least one officer had “violated our written policy and went against our training on how to deal with these situations.”

Officers involved was fired in the wake of the incident, with the others disciplined, according to the report.

Eason said no one from the City of Senatobia nor the police department has ever contacted her about her child’s arrest.

“They’re supposed to protect and serve,” she said, “but they’re not.”

“This happened in Mississippi,” Moore told WMC. “This happened in America, and we’re here to say to the City of Senatobia, ‘You have to pay for what you did.’ Senatobia, you can pay me now or you can pay me later. But trust me, you will pay this family.”