In this picture from Baton Rouge Police Department physique digicam video, officers work together with Jeremy Lee inside a warehouse in Baton Rouge on Jan. 9, 2023. Lee sued the division in August 2023 alleging officers abused him within the police warehouse nicknamed the “Brave Cave.”

Baton Rouge Police Department through AP

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Baton Rouge Police Department through AP

In this picture from Baton Rouge Police Department physique digicam video, officers work together with Jeremy Lee inside a warehouse in Baton Rouge on Jan. 9, 2023. Lee sued the division in August 2023 alleging officers abused him within the police warehouse nicknamed the “Brave Cave.”

Baton Rouge Police Department through AP

The FBI stated Friday it has opened a civil rights investigation into allegations in current lawsuits that police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, assaulted drug suspects they detained in an obscure warehouse generally known as the “Brave Cave.”

In one case, a person says he was taken to the warehouse and crushed so severely he wanted hospital care earlier than being booked into jail. In one other, a lady claims she was strip-searched, with an officer utilizing a flashlight to scan her physique.

Since the primary criticism was filed final month, town’s mayor has ordered the power closed, the police division has disbanded its road crimes unit and an officer on the heart of the allegations — the son of a present deputy chief — resigned and was arrested on a easy battery cost.

FBI officers confirmed Friday that the company has opened an investigation based mostly on “allegations that members of the department may have abused their authority.”

This newest scandal provides to an extended listing of corruption and misconduct allegations plaguing the Baton Rouge Police Department, which got here beneath vital scrutiny following the 2016 deadly police taking pictures of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old Black man. In 2021, a corruption probe into the division’s narcotics division led to prison fees and inside self-discipline in opposition to officers accused of stealing medicine from proof and mendacity on police studies.

Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul, who was employed to guide the company within the wake of Sterling’s killing, stated he was so involved over the current warehouse claims that he drove to the FBI’s New Orleans area division and requested them to evaluate the allegations.

“There were some mistakes made,” Paul advised The Associated Press, acknowledging that his inside affairs division initially failed to analyze. “I promise you we will get to the bottom of this.”

The most up-to-date lawsuit, which attorneys filed earlier this week on behalf of Ternell Brown, alleges officers pulled her over in June, took her to the identical “black site” and strip-searched her for “contraband.” She was launched with out fees when officers concluded the prescribed drugs in her possession have been authorized.

Her attorneys wrote within the lawsuit that they’re nonetheless studying “the full horror of what the street crimes unit did there. … Even those who were not beaten at the torture warehouse, we now know, were still sexually humiliated.”

The officer who resigned, Troy Lawrence Jr., has been the topic of a number of civil rights lawsuits and extreme pressure complaints in recent times. His father, Troy Lawrence Sr., was promoted to deputy chief in 2020 after commanding the road crimes unit, which glided by the acronym BRAVE, for Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination.

It was not clear late Friday whether or not Lawrence Jr. had an legal professional who may touch upon his behalf. An e-mail despatched to the police union in search of remark late Friday wasn’t instantly answered.

According to a lawsuit filed final month, he repeatedly turned off and muted his physique digicam throughout his interactions with Jeremy Lee, the suspect who ended up hospitalized with damaged bones and different accidents. Inside the warehouse, officers punched and kicked him whereas he screamed for assist, the lawsuit alleges. After he was violently interrogated and arrested, the one prison cost prosecutors pursued in opposition to Lee was resisting arrest.

Shortly after Lee’s lawsuit, Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston Broome ordered the warehouse closed, saying she was beforehand unaware of the power’s existence.

“The severity of these allegations deeply concerns me, especially given the potential impact on the trust our community places in us,” Broome stated.

Thomas Frampton, an legal professional representing each Lee and Brown, stated his group has heard from dozens extra folks alleging abuse contained in the warehouse and so they plan to file further lawsuits.

“This kind of misconduct is so entrenched that people had little reason to expect any kind of positive change,” he stated, praising the FBI’s choice to launch an investigation.