City of VP faces another lawsuit for police misconduct

A lawsuit was filed on January 8, 2017 against the City of Ville Platte for police conduct, which the plaintiff alleges violated their federally protected rights.
The lawsuit was filed in the Western District Court of Louisiana by local attorney Tony Dupre on behalf of Latasha Pleasant.
The plaintiff and her attorney believe that the two United States Constitutional Amendments that have been violated by the defendant in this matter are the fourth and fourteenth.
The fourth amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires any search warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause. The fourteenth amendment defines national citizenship and forbids states from restricting the basic rights of citizens.
In the suit, it states that “on or about January 26, 2017, plaintiff was arrested by the Ville Platte Police Department on a warrant.”
The plaintiff alleges that while in the custody of the VPPD, she “was not allowed to shower and/or change into clean uniforms for two days and was put into ‘the hole’ instead of a jail cell.”
In the suit, Pleasant claims on January 28, 2017, she was “forced into a closet with no bed or toilet,” and “she was forced to remove all of her clothing in front of male officers.”
According to the lawsuit, “the plaintiff requested a female officer be present when she was forced to remove her clothing but was denied.”
The lawsuit states that the “plaintiff repeatedly requested to use the bathroom facilities but was denied of this also,” and that Pleasant “urinated on herself and the floor of the closet.”
The plaintiff also alleges that she “remained in the closet from January 28, 2017 to January 30, 2017.”
According to the suit, the plaintiff and her council feel that the conduct of the defendant and it’s employees, “were deliberate and rose to the level of callous indifference and was the proximate cause of the violations of plaintiff’s federally protected rights.”
For that reason, the plaintiff is suing for “an award of exemplary damages against the defendant in an amount to punish the defendant for its actions and to deter the defendant from engaging in such conduct in the future.”