On Saturday, June 10, Jefferson herself was arrested by the same police department for recording an ongoing traffic stop.
“Ms. Jefferson called me several weeks ago concerned that the next time she went to Lexington she would be arrested. So she called me this past Saturday advising she was in her car, she was showing her ID to officers, and was on a public road not interfering with the investigation at all,” said attorney Michael Carr, who is representing her in court.
“She was filming a traffic stop of a third party, and the officer, upon seeing that, approached her, demanded her ID, which she showed, and then forcibly removed her from the car and arrested her.”
According to Carr, Jefferson was arrested by officers Scott Walker and Aaron Agee, both of whom are named in the federal suit and several more complaints of harassment and brutality filed by residents.
After being booked with three misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and failure to comply, she was released Monday morning — although Carr says he has yet to receive an incident report or an indication on what grounds the city of Lexington bases their charges.
“It’s not illegal in this state to film anything from a public area. I believed it incensed the officer that he was being recorded and it’s possible that because of that he retaliated against Ms. Jefferson,” he said. “Ultimately, while she was filming an incident where she was concerned about police corruption, bribery and retaliation, she was arrested herself.”
On June 1, Jefferson and dozens of Lexington residents met with Kristin Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Department of Justice's civil rights division, in a closed-door session at the municipal court house. They discussed ongoing concerns with policing in the town, even after former Police Chief Dobbins was fired for bragging about the number of people he'd killed in the line of duty while using racial epithets.
According to data released by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, revenue generated by traffic stops in Lexington, a majority Black town, increased more than threefold during Dobbins’ tenure.
Jefferson's court date on the three misdemeanor charges is set for July 13 at the Lexington Municipal Court.
“The trial will be without a jury because it's a city misdemeanor court, and the presiding judge is an employee of the City of Lexington just like the charging officer. So we certainly have a concern about that — the reality of it is that this judge is an employee of the city, and there’s a current federal lawsuit filed by Ms. Jefferson against the city. But ultimately we hope to have our fair day in court,” said Carr.
