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A federal appeals court has ruled that police officers who arrested a Black pastor who was watering his neighbor’s plants can be sued, reversing a lower court’s decision and likely sending the case to trial.
A three-judge panel at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Michael Jennings, who serves as pastor at Abundant Life Ministries in Sylacauga, can move forward with his lawsuit against the City of Childersburg and several police officers. In the ruling, the judges noted that the police officers who arrested Jennings “lacked even arguable probable cause.”
“This is a win for Pastor Jennings. It’s a win for justice,” said Jennings’ attorney, Harry Daniels, in an AP interview. “This has major implications for anyone who has been subjected to unlawful arrest because they wouldn’t give their ID.”
Jennings’ arrest in May 2022 drew national attention and national outrage when body cam footage of the 20-minute encounter hit the internet. In that video, Jennings can be seen using a water hose to spray plants outside of a home when officers approach and ask what he’s doing at the house.
Jennings gave the officers the name “Pastor Jennings” and told them that he had been asked to water the plants by the homeowners, who were family friends and neighbors. He also showed officers that he lived at a house nearby. When the police officers pressed him for more information and insinuated that he might have nefarious intentions, Jennings, dismayed, told them that he wouldn’t be giving them more information because they had no reason to demand his identification.
The 11th circuit judges agreed, writing that the officers involved in the arrest should not be granted qualified immunity because they lacked probable cause to arrest Jennings.
The Childersburg police officers involved in Jennings’ arrest carried through with it even after it was obvious who he was. On the viral video of the arrest, the woman who made the initial call to police to report a suspicious person told the officers, after learning Jennings was the person in question, that she made a mistake and that Jennings and the homeowner are friends.
Jennings was arrested on a charge of obstruction of governmental operations.
