The couple remained separated and handcuffed in the back of police vehicles for the duration of the stop, during which officers searched Ms. Armstead’s vehicle and confiscated her cellphone without informing her or receiving consent.

Ms. Armstead and Mr. Lewis were ultimately released without being charged. As a result of officers’ handcuffing, the medical device in Mr. Lewis’ left arm malfunctioned and required multiple medical procedures to replace.

While this case seeks redress for the personal trauma and physical suffering, that this incident caused Ms. Armstead and Mr. Lewis, our clients are also seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against the Rosenberg Police Department as a whole. This incident was not the product of a few rogue officers acting outside department policy and protocol, but rather part of an ongoing pattern of excessive force, discrimination against individuals with documented disabilities, unlawful detentions, and illegal searches and seizures performed by the Rosenberg Police Department against civilians.

The five officers named in this complaint have been named in nearly 100 civilian complaints between them over the last seven years. Moreover, despite numerous civilian complaints about excessive force over the last 5 years, RPD produced no records of corrective action associated with those complaints in response to an open records request filed by NPAP.

As such, NPAP is hoping that this case will provide an opportunity not only for these 5 officers to be held accountable for their abuse of Ms. Armstead and Mr. Lewis’ rights, but for the entire Rosenberg Police Department to be held to account for its history of abuse of civilian civil rights, and forced to implement meaningful policy changes that will prevent the recurrence of such abuses in the future.