Black Official’s Suit Over Traffic Stop Rejected

Saying he did not want to become an “appellate traffic court,” a federal judge issued a tentative ruling Monday dismissing a lawsuit by state Sen. Kevin Murray (D-Culver City), who claimed he was stopped while driving his Corvette in Beverly Hills because he is black.

U.S. District Judge William D. Keller said that if he granted the lawmaker’s request for an injunction against Beverly Hills, the federal court would find itself evaluating every traffic stop of an African American in Beverly Hills.

“This,” he wrote, “would be inappropriate.”

The judge said the U.S. Supreme Court has held that federal courts must exercise restraint in issuing injunctions against local law enforcement agencies.

Keller also faulted Murray’s lawyers for failing to schedule depositions of the officers involved.

Neither Murray nor his lawyer, Robert Tanenbaum, could be reached for comment about the ruling.

The senator was pulled over about 2 a.m. June 3 as he drove through La Cienega and Wilshire boulevards on the way home from celebrating his primary election victory.

The officers said they stopped him because his car did not have a front license plate, a violation of the state motor vehicle code, and a computer check of the rear plate drew a blank.

Legislators’ license plates are not readily accessible on the computer. Murray was not ticketed.

Murray contended in his lawsuit, however, that he was stopped simply because he was a black man driving an expensive vehicle in Beverly Hills.

In the lawsuit, he accused the Beverly Hills Police Department of having a “pattern and practice” of stopping blacks.

Keller said he intends to issue a final ruling later this week granting Beverly Hills’ motion to dismiss the case.

Two companion cases against Beverly Hills by other black motorists are pending in federal court.