ReOpen NC protester suing Gov. Cooper over arrest during stay-at-home order

A protester who police arrested three years in the past throughout a rally opposing the pandemic stay-at-home order has filed a federal lawsuit claiming her civil and constitutional rights had been violated.

Monica Ussery, who lived in Holly Springs on the time of her arrest, was taken into custody on April 14, 2020, whereas standing in a state-owned car parking zone on the nook of Jones and Wilmington streets in downtown Raleigh in the course of the first ReOpen NC rally.

Faucet right here: Learn the lawsuit filed by Monica Ussery

The ReOpen NC motion mobilized on-line in March 2020 after Gov. Roy Cooper introduced restrictions to colleges, companies and gatherings to gradual the unfold of COVID-19.

As the group grew on that day in April, Raleigh police instructed the group to disperse from the world. The division posted on Twitter that day declaring “protesting is a non-essential exercise.” Cooper mentioned the following day his orders “don’t intervene with individuals’s constitutional rights” however with “illegal mass gatherings.”

The roughly 100 individuals who gathered for the rally finally dispersed after repeated warnings from police — introduced utilizing a speaker system — to go away as a result of the protesters had been violating the mass gathering restrictions.

In physique digital camera video leaked this month and posted on-line by an impartial journalist, officers will be heard discussing a plan for warning the group and making ready to make arrests.

“I need to go forward and begin making some strikes now as a result of I don’t need the group to proceed to develop and all the things so I need to go forward and begin locking individuals up as quickly as doable and all the things so that may encourage all people else to disperse,” one officer will be heard saying on the physique digital camera video.

Ussery was the one protester arrested by police for not leaving. She mentioned she didn’t hear the a number of warnings over honking automobiles from the place she was standing within the car parking zone and she or he believes she was not given sufficient discover to go away.

“After a police officer mentioned, ‘Ma’am, that you must additionally go away,’ I had handcuffs on me inside 5 seconds. I counted,” Ussery recalled. “We heard nothing that was coming from the sidewalk or throughout the road.”

The North Carolina State Capitol Police wrote in a report that Ussery refused a number of calls for to go away and informed officers she was “designated for arrest” whereas she was being transported to the Wake County Detention Middle.

“She was the one one who ended up being arrested and I feel what you see on the finish of that video is her intent to not comply and at that time legislation enforcement has a accountability to implement the legislation,” mentioned Wake County District Lawyer Lorrin Freeman.

Ussery mentioned she didn’t launch the video that was leaked on-line April 14 exhibiting Raleigh Police Division officers; nevertheless, she should seem for a contempt listening to on April 28 as a result of the choose’s order was violated.

“The truth is legislation enforcement went out of their method to — in a protected area — give individuals a possibility to train their first modification proper and achieve that voluntary compliance and to get individuals to disperse.”

In a bench trial in 2021, Ussery was discovered responsible of two misdemeanors — violating an govt order and trespassing. She appealed the ruling. The fees had been dropped this February earlier than the case reached a trial.

The three-year ordeal is the inspiration of a federal lawsuit towards Cooper, Freeman and several other legislation enforcement officers that alleges violations of Ussery’s civil and constitutional rights and challenges the constitutionality of the pandemic-era govt orders.

“Whether or not it was shuttering homes of worship, closing faculties, or destroying small companies, within the identify of public well being…These officers’ energy grabs had been exceptional, unprecedented in American historical past and far-reaching, with the results nonetheless being felt years later,” reads the lawsuit, which was filed within the U.S. District Court docket for the Japanese District of North Carolina.

Ussery mentioned she hopes new authorized precedent is about for future lockdowns and govt orders.

“I feel the following individual standing within the car parking zone who’s daring to disagree with any governor [or] any elected official ought to have that proper protected and shouldn’t be picked on,” Ussery mentioned.

Within the midst of her prison case, Ussery’s protection group secured physique digital camera video from the Raleigh Police Division and State Capitol Police. The choose dominated the video could possibly be launched however couldn’t be disseminated publicly.