LOS ANGELES : Couple File Claim Over Arrest That Disrupted Their Wedding Plans
A couple whose New Year’s Eve wedding plans were disrupted when the groom was picked up by police filed a $150,000 claim Wednesday against the city of Los Angeles, alleging false arrest and racial discrimination.
John and Jamie Hill planned to marry shortly before midnight Dec. 31 in the garden of a Hollywood church. Instead, the ceremony was hastily performed in the hall of the North Hollywood police station where John was taken in handcuffs by officers searching for an African-American man suspected of carjacking and armed robbery.
“John would never have been stopped and arrested if he were not an African-American male driving in a mainly white and Hispanic community,” said the couple’s attorney, Gloria Allred, at a news conference at City Hall on Wednesday. “Just because a person is black doesn’t give police the right to stop him. Every black person doesn’t look alike.”
Police defended their handling of the case Wednesday, saying John Hill, 33, acted suspiciously.
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