Complaint No. 1774785031 - 1604173519

On the night of July 29, 2013, Clarence Jamison, a Black man driving home from his summer vacation, was stopped without cause in Mississippi. An armed white police officer named Nick McClendon pulled over Mr. Jamison, repeatedly lied to him about having received a report that “10 kilos of cocaine” were in his car, ripped apart the interior of his vehicle, and enlisted a drug detection dog. The search uncovered nothing. For nearly two hours, Mr. Jamison, terrified and exhausted, was forced to stand on the side of a busy highway in the dark. Traumatized by the encounter and left with a damaged vehicle, Mr. Jamison filed a lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a statute passed by Congress during Reconstruction to vindicate the civil rights of African Americans whose rights were being violated because of their race. Last week, Mr. Jamison learned that he would be blocked from suing the officer and would not get any compensation for the damages he experienced. In a 72-page order, Judge Carlton Reeves of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi concluded that “the officer who transformed a short traffic stop into an almost two-hour, life altering ordeal is entitled to qualified immunity.” Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine that shields a police officer from being sued for misconduct unless a prior court case has already deemed similar police actions to be illegal. Judge Reeves found that prior cases shielded Officer McClendon from Mr. Jamison’s lawsuit. But he went on to explain why the doctrine needs to be reformed. Tracing the history of qualified immunity and § 1983, Judge Reeves explained that this civil rights statute was passed to protect recently emancipated African Americans from violent white resistance to Black freedom and progress. The order cites EJI’s Reconstruction in America, a new report that documents more than 2,000 racial terror lynchings of Black people during the 12-year period following the Civil War. As Judge Reeves noted, Black people in Mississippi were the targets of repeated massacres during Reconstruction, including in Vicksburg (a short drive from where Mr. Jamison was pulled over), where white mobs killed at least 50 Black citizens who had organized to protest the removal of their elected Black sheriff. “Many of the perpetrators of racial terror were members of law enforcement,” the judge wrote. “It was a twisted law enforcement, though, as it prevented the laws of the era from being enforced.” In response to widespread racial violence, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1871, codified as 42 U.S.C. § 1983, which as the order details, “uniquely targeted state officials who ‘deprived persons of their constitutional rights’ [and] the doors to the courthouse were opened to Black people.” The U.S. Supreme Court later closed those doors by creating and expanding the doctrine of qualified immunity. Judge Reeves lamented that he was bound by the doctrine to add Mr. Jamison’s case to the long list of cases in which police officers have violated people’s constitutional rights with impunity: Our courts have shielded a police officer who shot a child while the officer was attempting to shoot the family dog; prison guards who forced a prisoner to sleep in cells “covered in feces” for days; police officers who stole over $225,000 worth of property … an officer who seriously burned a woman after detonating a “flashbang” device in the bedroom where she was sleeping … the doctrine now protects all officers, no matter how egregious their conduct, if the law they broke was not “clearly established.” In granting the officer’s motion for qualified immunity, Judge Reeves emphasized that “[i]mmunity is not exoneration. And the harm in this case to one man sheds light on the harm done to the nation by this manufactured doctrine.” The order concludes by calling on the Supreme Court to get rid of the doctrine it created. There is precedent for the Court to do so. “Just as the Supreme Court swept away the mistaken doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ so too should it eliminate the doctrine of qualified immunity,” Judge Reeves wrote. “Let us waste no time in righting this wrong.” In early 2024 through 2026, following Nick McLendon's mentorship by the now disgraced Rankin County Sheriff, Brian Bailey, known as The Rankin County "Goon Squad" Sheriff, who's deputies were recently sentenced to decades in prison after these deputies were involved in the torture of two African American males, McLendon quickly rose through the ranks to become the City of Pearl, Mississippi Chief of Police, minutes away from where he had violated Clarence Jamison's Fourth Amendment Rights in Jamison v. McLendon (2020). Nick McLendon's reign of terror, as Pearl MS police Chief, among African Americans citizens, as well as his Brady-Giglio listed Lieutenant, Richard Tyler Lents, was on full display by the continuous targeting of African Americans, especially Mr. Leon Seals, who advocated publicly about McLendon's officers' misconduct that included multiple false criminal charges on at least 4 separate occasions that included Brady Listed Pearl Police Officer, Richard Tyler Lents, after Leon Seals was unlawfully and illegally detained, charged, tased, arrested, and prosecuted while demanding that the officers leave his property without a warrant, his consent, exigent circumstances, a warrant, or probable cause. Morgan Seals, Leon Seals' wife was also illegally detained and arrested for demanding that the officers leave due to the officers frightening their children. Both Mr. and Mrs. Seals were found not guilty in Rankin County Justice Court months later as Pro Se defendants, whereby the married property owning couple filed a 42 USC 1983 Notice of Claim and intent to sue the City of Pearl MS as a government entity, as well as Chief Nick McLendon in his individual and his official capacity as well as the Mayor, Jake Windham and Lt. Richard Tyler Lents, each in their same capacities and due to the persistent and ongoing harassment of the African American couple. During Leon Seals' attempt, as a Pro Se defendant, in the criminal cases against he and his wife, which he was later found to be NOT GUILTY, was unlawfully required to have a police escort into the public city hall by the same department he was defending himself against. After waiting and being told by a clerk to wait for an escort to obtain his City of Pearl Ms. FOIA requested evidence of Chief of Police Nick McLendon's and Pearl Mayor, Jake Windham's, cellphone communications, used for his trial and records showing the intentional targeting of himself, and due to his advocacy online about the mistreatment he and his wife had suffered, he was blocked from gaining that exculpatory and relevant trial evidence in which Chief Nick McLendon was directly involved in blocking his rights to those records for trial and Leon Seals was even arrested as he waited quietly in the lobby to get his evidence on a zip-drive. Attached as Evidence of Chief Nick McLendon's Arrest of Leon Seals and other officers is attached, Blatantly and intentionally blocking evidence meets all the elements of Tampering With Physical Evidence ranks among criminal misconduct with Felony Tampering evidence under Mississippi Code: 97-9-125; whereby Nick McLendon should have been arrested and criminally charged for that crime to block a criminal defendant with a retaliatory arrest, while attempting to unlawfully block a Pro Se defendant there to secretly obtain public records by which to defend themselves from the same city, police department, chief of police and officers as the defendant sits peacefully inside a public building during business hours and after being informed by a city clerk to remain there. Later, during the appellate process window, for the crime of trespassing in city hall to obtain exculpatory and inculpatory evidence as a Pro Se defendant, Chief of Pearl Police Department, Nick McLendon further violated Leon Seals' rights under the Sixth Amendment to a fair and unbiased appellate process and trial when McLendon, in concert with City Prosecutor, Brendan Sartin, willfully, unlawfully, unethically, and illegally released the attached online Facebook post regarding Leon Seals, whereby, 28,000 followers viewed statements to bias any hope of a fair and unbiased jury pool or Appellate trial De Novo. Simultaneously, during the appellate window for Leon Seals to prepare for trial, Chief Nick McLendon, in concert with City of Pearl prosecutor, Brendan Sartin, intentionally, unethically, willfully and unlawfully released relevant and pertainent inculpatory and exculpatory body camera footage, photographs, statements, and evidence still in play for Seals' appeals trial, to a Social Media Influencer, and friend of Chief McLendon's, Clay Edwards, who owns and operates "The Clay Edwards Show" with 78,000 followers on Facebook alone, and is a pro-law enforcement shock blogger. Edwards, whose legal name is Clayton Arthur Bolls or alias: (C-Note), published a 3-part docu-series,(attached as evidence), taking snippets of the arrests of Leon Seals, by Chief McLendon and allowed to be distributed by Brendan Sartin, the City prosecutor, in a planned and orchestrated online assault on fair and impartial justice and upon the judiciary, in conjunction with "The Clay Edwards Show" staff members as well as Channel 103.9 FM in the Jackson, and colluded together in an unlawful and unethical effort to use this relevant appellate evidence, to post onto Facebook and YouTube, that are attached as evidence. This act was done in an effort to insure that Leon Seals would have NO CHANCE of a fair and unbiased jury or bench trial. As the Mississippi Branch President of the Brady List online, I have NEVER seen anything that comes remotely close to this level of planned misconduct, unlawful behavior, or official misconduct and in my opinion, ALL INVOLVED in the circumvention of the Judicial process and officials involved should each be listed here and should each be brought before BLEOST, the Department of Public Safety, and the Mississippi Bar, as well as a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into these acts, to insure that these government officials answer for their individual roles in this egregious misconduct that I pray that my eyes may never witness again.