Officer Jason Crawford Accused of Brutality

AL

An East Brewton couple filed a police brutality lawsuit this month against an officer they claim repeatedly harassed them and caused the woman to prematurely deliver her child.

Michael Palmer and Amber Ballard, who seek unspecified damages, accuse Officer Jason Crawford, Police Chief B.C. Cooper and unnamed officers with 13 violations of state and federal law.

The lawsuit represents one side of a legal argument. Neither Cooper nor Crawford, who has left the Police Department, could be reached for comment.

According to the civil complaint in U.S. District Court in Mobile, Crawford repeatedly stopped and harassed Michael Palmer at work and other locations in East Brewton.

"For whatever reason, this officer targeted Mr. Palmer and his family," said April England-Albright, the attorney for the plaintiffs.

The complaint cites a June 14, 2006, altercation on Mayo Street in which Crawford stopped a car that Amber Ballard was driving and told Palmer there was a warrant for his arrest. He took Palmer into custody, refusing Palmer's requests to double-check his information with the police station, according to the suit.

Crawford said that he was going to search the car, according to the suit. Ballard would not consent to the search and asked the officer to state his probable cause.

When Ballard reached for her cell phone to call her father, the suit states, Crawford said, "I am sick of you and you are under arrest.

Ballard, 23, and Palmer, 37, were convicted of disorderly conduct stemming from the events that day, according to Escambia County District Court records. The judge also found Palmer guilty of resisting arrest, failure to obey a police officer, disorderly conduct from a March 2006 arrest and endangering the welfare of a child.

The suit states that Crawford grabbed Ballard's hand during the June 2006 traffic stop and pushed her into the car, pressing against her stomach. The suit alleges that Crawford searched Ballard in a sexual manner, touching her panties and asking her if she had any thing on her.

Other officers arrived and held Ballard's hands behind her back in an awkward manner, according to the suit.

At the police station, Ballard complained that she was in pain and asked to see a doctor, but the officers ignored her, the suit maintains.

Later that month, Ballard gave birth about five weeks before her due date. She and the baby had to stay in the hospital for six weeks, and the child still has complications, according to the suit.