Following a recent police shooting, The New York Times reported that William R. Claiborne, the founder and managing attorney of the Claiborne Firm, “has emerged as a chief critic of Savannah’s law enforcement culture.”

In 2016, Mr. Claiborne won a settlement from the city over a case in which a white officer used a stun gun on a black man whom the police had misidentified while executing a warrant. In another stun-gun case, Mr. Claiborne and other lawyers are representing the family of Matthew Ajibade, a mentally ill black man who died after a violent confrontation with Chatham County sheriff’s deputies at a local jail. Their lawsuit in federal court alleges that Mr. Ajibade, 21, was shocked four times with the device while strapped to a restraint chair, and then was denied medical attention.

Mr. Claiborne has also filed a state civil racketeering lawsuit that names Mr. Lovett and others and alleges a “takeover” of the police department by corrupt officers who controlled a drug distribution network. (The suit was filed before the department split into separate city and county departments earlier this year.)

The suit describes a continuum of corruption, arguing that the network included members of a police-controlled cocaine smuggling ring who had evaded punishment during a 1990s-era federal probe that led to the arrest of 11 officers.

“Old Racial Divides Exposed in Savannah After a Police Shooting,”
The New York Times, April 29, 2018.

If your civil rights have been violated, call us today to set up a consultation: (912) 351-8775.