While Nathan Antonio Washington awaits trial for alleged sexual assaults in Charlottesville and Albemarle that are part of the so-called serial rapist case, Charlottesville police are still dealing with a lawsuit that springs from their earlier, unsuccessful attempts to find the serial rapist. But a recent ruling by U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon has shot down efforts by Larry Monroe and his attorneys to certify his lawsuit as class action.
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Cops sued for serial rapist DNA search DNA subject files suit |
Monroe, one of the local men approached by city police to submit to a cheek-swab DNA test in 2003 and 2004 in the search for a serial rapist, sued the City of Charlottesville, city Police Chief Tim Longo and Detective James Mooney, claiming the swabs violated the constitutional rights of nearly 190 men. Had attorneys Deborah Wyatt and Neal Walters been successful in classifying the case as class action, they would have sought $15,000 for each plaintiff.
City police Chief Tim Longo has faced a lawsuit for police tactics to find the serial rapist by swabbing young black men for DNA, but he had a minor victory when a judge opted not to make the lawsuit class action.
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The police department claims they swabbed young black males because the description fits how the victims had described the rapist. But Monroe’s lawyers contend that the investigation constituted a “virtual dragnet of black males.” The police strategy lasted until spring 2004, ending only after protests that the police department was using racial profiling.
Judge Moon ruled that Monroe is not an “adequate representative of his class” of the men who were swabbed. The judge was not convinced that Monroe would “take an active role in and control the litigation,” and wrote that it seemed more likely that he was lending his name to a suit controlled entirely by his attorneys. Wyatt was traveling and couldn’t return calls. Walters did not return calls by press time.
Monroe’s own lawsuit is still alive. Though rulings last year chipped away at some of the claims, Monroe’s side argues that the “race-based investigation” violated equal protection and the DNA collection violated search and seizure laws under the Fourth Amendment.
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