Tuskegee University head basketball coach Benjy Taylor on Friday announced his lawsuit against Morehouse College and two campus police officers after he was escorted off the court in handcuffs following a close game in January.
Taylor is seeking over $1 million in the federal lawsuit, which names Morehouse and campus police officers R. Clark and M. Roberson.
The Tuskegee coach was handcuffed and escorted away after asking security to enforce conference protocols in the postgame handshake line following a heated January 31 Division II HBCU SIAC championship game, which Morehouse football players joined after "yelling obscenities" at his team. Taylor said he felt "violated" by his treatment for wanting to get the football players out of the line in what he felt was a "very dangerous situation."
SEE: Watch: Tuskegee basketball coach escorted out in handcuffs after heated rivalry game
Tuskegee athletic director Reginald Ruffin said campus security claimed that Taylor was “very aggressive” and “the aggressor,” which is why he was placed in handcuffs.
National civil rights attorneys Harry Daniels and John Burris are representing Taylor, who announced his lawsuit in the Northern District of Georgia on Friday in Atlanta.
A release announcing the lawsuit stated, "[T]ensions actually began during the game as Coach Taylor expressed concerns as several members of Morehouse College’s football team were at the court’s baseline taunting the Tuskegee players and shouting profanities at the coaches and staff. Concerned that the situation could escalate, Coach Taylor requested that the football players be removed from the baseline under the basket and Morehouse police officer R. Clark was notified."
"Unfortunately, rather than remedy the situation, Clark took his position next to the football players, laughed and turned his back while the insults continued," the release added. "Coach Taylor personally asked Clark to enforce the conference-mandated security protocols attempting to diffuse an increasingly dangerous situation when the football players began intermingling with the basketball team on the court during the postgame handshake. Instead of doing so, however, Clark chose to handcuff Coach Taylor, arrest him and escort him from the court as if he was a wanted criminal. In fact, the incident was broadcast on the court’s jumbotron and a national television audience furthering Coach Taylor’s humiliation."
“Coach Taylor is a good man who did the right thing to protect his team and deescalate a dangerous situation and this officer put him in chains for his troubles,” said Daniels. “Colleges and universities are supposed to be an example for our young people and the lesson this example teaches is not only reprehensible. It’s illegal.”
“These officers handcuffed and humiliated a good man for no other reason than because they could,” said Burris. “We might not be surprised to see that kind of behavior in some out-of-control department. But this is the home of Julian Bond, Maynard Jackson, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and more. We expect better.”
Tuskegee lost the game at Morehouse 77-69.
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