East Lansing Sued for Police Brutality, Misleading Press Release

The City of East Lansing, its police chief and an ELPD officer are being sued in federal court for excessive force and libel, among other things, after an officer deployed pepper spray within inches of two Black men’s faces before arresting them. One of the men had been deescalating an altercation officers responded to and questions have been raised about the police department’s actions that night and the months after.

The city and the East Lansing Police Department later published a misleading press release about the incident that named the two men. Lonnie Smith and Mason Woods, and listed crimes they were charged with. City prosecutors eventually dropped the charges and now the city, as well as ELPD Chief Jen Brown and ELPD Officer Andrew Lyon, are being sued by the men. 

The legal action was announced this morning at a press conference outside of Dave’s Hot Chicken where the incident took place. Woods and Smiths’ mothers, members of the city’s police oversight commission, and representatives from the Lansing area NAACP branch and Greater Lansing Area Women’s Center were in attendance.

“All you saw was the color of their skin, you don’t know their heart, you don’t know their education, you don’t even know where they came from,” Smith’s mother Nadia Sellers said at the press conference. “This time, you picked on the wrong kids and we’re going to make sure you can’t pick on another.”

Lawsuits on behalf of each of the men, which their attorney Jack Rucker shared with ELi, accuse ELPD and the city of racism, excessive force by police, false arrest and libel, among other grievances. 

The suits stem from the Aug. 24 incident that was captured by a security camera outside Dave’s Hot Chicken. Smith and Woods, who are friends, were celebrating Woods’ 22nd birthday. The footage shows Woods waiting in line outside Dave’s Hot Chicken. 

In the footage, Woods appears to be friendly with others in line at the start of the recording, but about 90 seconds in, a verbal altercation appears to begin.

A bouncer outside the restaurant pulls Woods into Dave’s Hot Chicken, but when he pushes back out of the restaurant, Smith comes from the curb into the view of the camera. Smith grabs Woods from behind, directing him away from the other men. Woods stumbles forward and Smith moves in between him and the other men, and puts his hands on Woods’ chest creating separation between Woods and the men he is arguing with. 

Soon after, two police officers enter into view of the camera. One officer appears to be trying to break up the small crowd when officer Lyon deploys pepper spray within inches of Woods and Smith’s faces seconds after appearing in view of the camera. 

According to the lawsuits, Woods and Smith did not know police were present when they were pepper sprayed because of the short time officers were on the scene and noise downtown that prevented them from hearing officers identifying themselves. 

The lawsuits say the two men were not given adequate treatment for injuries caused by the pepper spray. Smith’s mother previously told ELi she and her son spent hours at an urgent care and two different emergency rooms before he was treated for the pepper spray injuries. 

Both lawsuits allege the city’s press release that named Smith and Woods constitutes libel. The press release, issued more than a month after the incident, characterized the altercation as a fight and violent. There was some pushing, but no punches are seen in the footage, and the only injuries were inflicted by police. 

“Making them the face of the violence downtown that the city so insists is overwhelming,” Rucker said at the press conference. 

Smith’s lawsuit says that other aspects of the press release were inaccurate, like that he was held until sober when a breathalyzer test showed he had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.00. 

The suits accuse Police Chief Brown of slander for a comment she made in a news interview about violence downtown during welcome weekend. Brown’s comment has been characterized as racist by city officials and residents at recent local government meetings. 

“We have a very transient population, and over the last month, starting with Welcome Weekend, we have had a disproportionate number of minorities come into the community and commit crimes, and as police officers we are simply responding to those crimes,” Brown told WLNS.

At the press conference, Rucker said that Brown’s comment shows there are issues within ELPD that go beyond this single incident. 

“There is a policy and a custom in the City of East Lansing Police Department to treat minorities differently, to assert a second level of justice that permits them to engage in far more brutality,” Rucker said. “This is backed up by statistics.”

In the month since the security footage surfaced and Brown’s comment, the city’s Police Oversight Commission and Human Rights Commission have called for Brown to resign or be removed. At the Oct. 21 City Council meeting, council passed a vague motion to hire outside attorneys to conduct a review of ELPD. 

East Lansing Communications Director Carrie Sampson told ELi the city has no comment on the matter.