Nassau County police racially profiled, falsely arrested woman, suit says

A Massapequa woman alleges in a $30 million lawsuit that she was racially profiled when Nassau police pulled her over in 2021 in Bellmore and arrested her on a claim that she had an active arrest warrant.

Tivia Leith, 32, said she and her 9-year-old son were emotionally scarred by the incident, which began with a car stop and ended about 11 hours later when Leith was released from State Police custody without explanation.

"Let me tell you, having my son witness his mother being handcuffed, criminalized and taken to jail, has changed our lives forever," Leith told reporters during a news conference at her lawyer's office Tuesday. "Going through this event I went through on that night was a living nightmare that continues to repeat itself over and over again."

The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court Monday, seeks damages from Nassau County, the Nassau County Police Department, as well as individual police officers and New York State Police troopers, for allegedly violating Leith’s civil rights. 

Spokespersons for the county police department and the New York State Police declined to comment. A spokesman for Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman pointed to the fact that it allegedly happened under the prior administration and said he couldn't comment on pending litigation.

Leith’s car stop had “no reasonable basis” and is part of a pattern by Nassau police, who disproportionately conduct traffic stops and arrests of Black people, according to the lawsuit filed by Hempstead-based attorney Frederick K. Brewington.

Black people are about five times more likely than white people to be stopped by police in Nassau County, despite representing about 11% of the population, according to the lawsuit. In 2021, Black people accounted for 35.6% of the arrests in Nassau County. Comparatively, white people, who account for some 60% of the population, represented 33.1% of the arrests, the suit says.

"That type of policing in Nassau County is against the law; that type of policing is against the Constitution of the United States," Brewington said during Tuesday's news conference. "And that type of policing in Nassau County has to stop, because that then leads to numbers like these. That's what we have. And there's no reason when you are approximately 10% of the population, that you end up being stopped or arrested more than five times the number of white people in Nassau County." 

Brewington said it's unclear if any police body camera footage of his client's interaction with police exists. 

Leith, who is Black, was driving on Sunrise Highway near Newbridge Road in Bellmore after she picked up her son, who was identified as “K.D.,” from school on Dec. 7, 2021. She was stopped by a Nassau police officer in slow-moving traffic, the lawsuit states.

Leith says she was not given a reason for the traffic stop, but was told later that she had an outstanding state police warrant. She was handcuffed and taken into custody in front of her son, according to the lawsuit, whose father picked him up. 

Leith previously had a bench warrant issued for her arrest on Aug. 28, 2021, following a DWI arrest the previous year. But the warrant was vacated by Nassau District Court Judge Chris J. Coschignano on Sept. 20, 2021, almost three months before the alleged false arrest, according to the lawsuit. Any claim that she had an active warrant last December was "a fabrication and untrue," the lawsuit states.

Leith said she was strip-searched by a female Nassau County police officer, leaving her overwhelmingly embarrassed and traumatized. Brewington pointed to Nassau police rules and procedures that state a strip search should only be performed if there is "reasonable suspicion" that a prisoner is concealing a weapon or other contraband that could facilitate an escape. 

Four hours after she was taken into Nassau police custody, she was given two traffic citations that were “trumped up, false, fabricated and malicious” and “used as a pretext and for her arrest and detention,” the lawsuit states. The tickets, which alleged the car's inspection was not valid and a license plate light was out, were later dismissed, according to the lawsuit.

After about four hours in custody, Nassau police transferred her to the state police, the lawsuit states.

Leith said she got conflicting statements from police about the arrest and detention and she was ultimately released at about 4 a.m. on Dec. 8. 

Leith said she and her son have sought counseling over the ordeal. 

"Now, all I think about on the road is being pulled over again, for no reason other than the color of my skin," Leith said. "I heard the term 'driving while Black' before; I understood what it meant. But until you experience what me and my family have gone through, you just don't realize how damaging the view of police authorities can be."