Clearwater settles lawsuits alleging racial bias in wrongful arrest

CLEARWATER — The city has paid $50,000 to settle two lawsuits from a man who alleged Clearwater police officers violated his civil rights when they arrested him for a burglary he did not commit.

Jacques LaPread, 51, was arrested in June 2019 and spent a night in jail after police spotted him at a gas station and misidentified him as a different Black man who used a stolen credit card there that evening. Five months later, the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney’s Office opted not to pursue charges over concern with the identification.

LaPread filed two lawsuits in Tampa federal court in 2023 — one against the Clearwater Police Department and the three officers involved and the other against former Chief Daniel Slaughter. Both alleged his arrest was a result of racial profiling that violated the U.S. Constitution.

Clearwater risk manager Todd Morrone said the city did not admit to violating LaPread’s civil rights in the settlement and argued in court filings there was probable cause for the arrest. But he said the city agreed LaPread was wrongly arrested and sought to prevent further cost to taxpayers. The terms were reached on May 5, and the cases were each dismissed in late May, according to court records.

Slaughter agreed LaPread’s arrest was a “bad identification” by officers who should have investigated further but denied it was due to racial profiling or a cultural problem in the department.

“I always acknowledged that we could have done better in that case,” said Slaughter, who retired as chief last year and became an assistant city manager.

Although he asked for damages of more than $100,000, LaPread said he wanted to move on from an injustice that turned his life upside down. His goal, he said, was to expose “sloppy police work” that kept him from a promotion at his cybersecurity job while he faced charges of burglary and credit card fraud.

“I just want them to do a better job,” LaPread said. “I’m not trying to take anyone’s livelihood even though they didn’t care about mine.”

After an internal investigation by the police department, the three officers involved — Michael Buis, Kyle Bingham and Henry Giles — were issued reprimands. Bingham and Giles are still officers in the patrol division.

Buis later resigned, but his departure was not a result of the discipline, a spokesperson said last year.

The investigation began on June 20, 2019, after a woman called police to report her wristlet, with credit cards, military ID and other items were stolen from her Jeep at the Eddie C. Moore softball complex.

At 8:06 p.m. that evening one of the cards was used at a Speedway gas station on McMullen Booth Road to buy cigarettes, according to LaPread’s complaints. A credit card from the Jeep was also used at a nearby Walgreens.

On that same evening, LaPread stopped at the Speedway, withdrew $20 from the ATM and used part of the cash to make a purchase, the complaints state.

On the way out, LaPread held the door open for officers, who, unbeknownst to him, were arriving to investigate the use of the stolen credit card, according to the complaints.

“One of the officers thought LaPread ‘looked suspicious,’ so he watched LaPread enter his vehicle and wrote down his license plate number,” a complaint alleged.

After running LaPread’s plates, the officers obtained surveillance video of the man who used the stolen credit card at the Speedway. The suspect had no resemblance to LaPread other than being an African American male, the complaints alleged.

The suspect had a full beard with sideburns and was wearing long gray pants and a white long-sleeved shirt. LaPread was wearing a white T-shirt and blue cargo pants, the lawsuits state. His booking photo shows a goatee but no beard.

According to the police incident report for the case, officers identified LaPread “using surveillance video” and a witness statement from the gas station clerk. In a response to the lawsuit, senior assistant city attorney Michael Fuino alleged there was no evidence the officers watched the video before the arrest to support the claim that they violated his civil rights.

At 9:38 p.m., officers arrived at LaPread’s home, where he was standing outside. They approached him with guns drawn, held him at gunpoint and arrested him while his mother and small children watched, according to the complaints.

The officers searched the car but did not find any of the items reported stolen from the Jeep, according to the complaints. They also had no evidence LaPread had been at the Walgreens, where the stolen credit card was also used, the complaints stated.

LaPread alleged the officers also made no attempt to confirm the method of payment he used at the gas station, which would have proven he used cash, not a stolen credit card.

LaPread was released on bail the next day. He said he had to disclose the arrest to his employer, which made him ineligible for a promotion.

That November, prosecutors declined to pursue charges because they were “very uncomfortable with the identification of this individual that had been arrested,” state attorney Bruce Bartlett told the Tampa Bay Times last year.

On Friday, LaPread said he’s focused on his job and moving on, but there are still impacts. The burglary case still shows up on his record even though charges weren’t filed.

“I can’t let that one thing stop me from moving on, it’s part of life unfortunately,” LaPread said.

And after LaPread’s wrongful arrest, police never arrested anyone else in the 2019 burglary case, Lt. Meg Hasty confirmed on Friday.