One man is suing the city of Brockton, Massachusetts after he was allegedly targeted by a racist city employee.
According to Enterprise News, Sean Williamson, who has a state-issued disability parking placard, has filed a federal lawsuit against the city, parking control officer Jorge Delgado, Mayor Bill Carpenter, the former mayoral chief of staff Darren Duarte, Brockton Police Department Chief John Crowley and Detective Santiago Cirino.
This is all comes after parking control officer Delgado allegedly used the n-word while ticketing Williamson for parking in a space reserved for people with disabilities.
According to the suit, in 2017, Williamson—who walks with the aid of a cane and artificial limb after his left leg was amputated—drove his pregnant wife and infant son to a medical appointment at the Brockton Neighborhood Health Center.
When he arrived to the center he says he hung his disability parking placard from his rearview mirror.
When he spotted Delgado, Brockton’s parking control officer, typing on a handheld device, Williamson got out of his vehicle to show his parking placard. But he claims Delgado ignored it.
When he asked why his state-issued placard was being ignored, Delgado allegedly responded, “Shut up, n—–.”
Two bystanders were present when the interaction took place and one was so disgusted by the exchange he told the officer he would be calling the mayor’s office to report the racial slur.
“Go right on ahead, I don’t give a f*ck,” Delgado allegedly replied.
Delgado later claimed Williamson had a knife and threatened him. Even though a review of surveillance camera video of the incident showed Williamson had no knife, he was still taken to trial over Delgado’s accusation and later found not guilty.
“The Brockton Police Department should have cleared Mr. Williamson then and there, and saw to it that Mr. Delgado was fired from his city job for using a racial slur against Mr. Williamson, and lying,” said Daniel W. Rice, an attorney representing the plaintiff.
“Brockton had Mr. Williamson arrested, jailed, and prosecuted for a serious crime its own police department’s investigation showed he didn’t commit. If this weren’t outrageous enough, Brockton continued to prosecute Mr. Williamson all the way until he was found ‘not guilty’ of the false charges at trial, even though it had somehow ‘lost’ the exculpatory videotape along the way.”
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“Brockton’s conduct in this matter, therefore, includes the condonation of racism, and a malicious prosecution made even more malicious by its destruction of exculpatory evidence,” said Rice, in a statement. “That Brockton’s illegal acts were aimed at convicting Mr. Williamson of a crime, for which he would surely have been incarcerated and had his reputation ruined, is shameful and conscience-shocking. Mr. Williamson is justified in seeking substantial damages against Brockton for its illegal conduct.”