Another Black resident has sued over strip search in Asheville traffic stop

ASHEVILLE - Another man present at a 2018 police traffic stop has sued over a strip search conducted in a gas station bathroom that resulted in no drugs or other contraband being found.

That latest federal lawsuit was filed by Brandon Pickens, who was with Marcus Hyatt during the traffic stop the men said resulted in them being handcuffed and detained for hours before being searched.

"The cavity searches were performed in a public gas station bathroom and were conducted in unsanitary, unreasonable and outrageous conditions such that would shock the common understanding of decency," Pickens wrote in his complaint.

Filed in 2021 by Pickens, who is now in prison on unrelated charges, the lawsuit has not gone to trial and garnered no media attention, only coming to light after Pickens sent a recent letter to the Citizen Times. The latest filing was an Oct. 7 response from Pickens opposing a defense motion for relief from judgment.

Pickens is representing himself and brought the suit in U.S. District Court of the Western District of North Carolina in Asheville.

Read this:Strip search leads to court battle for body cam video from Buncombe County Sheriff's Office

Previously:U.S. judge says no 'racial bias' in Great Smokies arrest, conviction of Black man

In August, Hyatt won his lawsuit in that court after it was found Buncombe County Sheriff's Detective Jeff May falsified a drug field test and made false statements in order to get a warrant to search him. Hyatt is Black while the deputies are white. While not the central issue, race played in a role in the case, with Hyatt saying he was targeted because he is Black.

Other deputies were found not to have violated Hyatt's Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure. Hyatt's then-girlfriend Ashley Barrett was also a plaintiff, saying she was illegally detained as a part of a concerted deputy operation, but lost her part of the suit.

U.S. District Court Judge Martin Reidinger awarded Hyatt $50,000. But payment of that money was delayed after May's motion for a new trial and his pushback over more than $250,000 in lawyers fees that Hyatt's attorneys said should be part of the judgment.

It is not clear when a ruling will be made on payment and the motions by the defense.

Adam Peoples, attorney for May, as well as two other deputies − J.D. Lambert and Katherine Lewis, who were not found liable − declined to comment Oct. 20 on Pickens' suit.

The same year as the 2018 traffic stop, Pickens and Hyatt sought legal advice and spoke with the Citizen Times about the incident. But Pickens was convicted in 2019 as a habitual felon and did not become part of Hyatt's lawsuit. Pickens is serving a six-and-a-half-year term at Alexander Correctional Institute in Taylorsville, south of Wilkesboro.

He could not be reached Oct. 20 through a prison electronic message system. In his letter to the Citizen Times, dated Sept. 11, he noted the court on July 11 allowed his case to be related to Hyatt's because of their similarity. That means Pickens case is on hold until litigation is finished with Hyatt.

But in a related legal action, Pickens is seeking to bring back as a defendant Asheville Police Department Detective Steven Hendricks, whom the court dismissed as a defendant in Hyatt's case, saying his involvement was minimal.

Pickens has asked the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse that decision. He said Hendricks, who applied for the search warrant, should be held accountable "for obtaining a warrant to strip search plaintiff based on a warrant application that he knew contained false and misleading information."

Mays was found to have falsely said he smelled crack cocaine near the suspects. The court also found the deputy lied when he said a field test of a small bit of substance was positive for the drug.

In his written response for Hendricks, Senior Assistant City Attorney Eric Edgerton said Pickens had failed to "make the minimal factual allegations to support" the idea that Hendricks knew the information was false.

The briefing phase of the appeal finished Oct. 12.

Reached Oct. 20, Edgerton declined to comment before a court decision, but said he anticipated a ruling on the appeal "in the near future."

Joel Burgess has lived in WNC for more than 20 years, covering politics, government and other news. He's written award-winning stories on topics ranging from gerrymandering to police use of force. Got a tip? Contact Burgess at jburgess@citizentimes.com, 828-713-1095 or on Twitter @AVLreporter. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Another Black resident sues over Asheville traffic stop strip search