Members of the Washington, D.C. police department are being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union for allegedly arresting people unlawfully and depriving them for hours without access to basic items, like food, water, and the chance to go to the bathroom.
The ACLU is representing four plaintiffs who were present at the anti-Trump rallies Jan. 20 in D.C. including Shay Horse, a freelance photographer based out of New York who was photographing the demonstration when he was pepper sprayed by a police officer and later arrested.
Horse was "denied food, water, and access to a toilet for periods ranging from 7 to 16 hours." He and another plaintiff, Elizabeth Lagesse, were kept in a state of "anxiety, hunger, thirst, and other discomfort," according to the complaint. They were also handcuffed so tightly "that one of Plaintiff Lagesse's wrists bled and Plaintiff Horse lost feeling in several fingers, some of which were numb for months afterward."
During processing, they were also subjected to "intrusive, humiliating, and unjustified manual rectal probing, and grabbing of their testicles."
Lagesse is a resident of Maryland. The other plaintiffs are Judah Ariel, a lawyer, and Milo Gonzalez, a New York resident. Peter Newsham, police chief of the District of Columbia, and as many as 170 police officers are listed as defendants.
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