Police officer wins $1.1 million over arrest by Maryland state trooper
A jury awarded a former Prince George’s County police lieutenant $1.19 million Thursday in her civil suit against a Maryland State Police trooper who she said pulled her over in 2019 for talking on her cellphone without using Bluetooth and falsely arrested her.
The jury in Prince George’s County Circuit Court awarded damages to Alita Gaskill, the lieutenant who retired from the department the year after the incident, finding Trooper Shareef Lewis and the state liable for violations of Gaskill’s rights under the Maryland Constitution, Gaskill’s lawyers said in a news release.
Lewis, who worked out of the state police agency’s Prince Frederick Barrack at the time of the incident, was also found liable for false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and gross negligence, according to the release.
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“Today’s jury verdict sends a strong message that the Maryland State Police need to get their house in order,” Timothy F. Maloney, an attorney representing Gaskill, said in the release.
The Maryland Attorney General’s Office, which argued in court filings that Lewis had conducted a legal traffic stop, said officials will “confer and decide next steps which prevents us from any further comment at this point.” A spokesperson with the state police said in an email that the department “cannot provide comment at this time.” Lewis is still employed with Maryland State Police, according to the spokesperson.
The incident unfolded May 15, 2019, when Lewis was off-duty in National Harbor and saw Gaskill operating an unmarked police vehicle, according to Gaskill’s complaint.
Gaskill was also off-duty and was picking up food for her family, Maloney said.
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Lewis, who Gaskill’s attorneys noted was outside of his assigned patrol area in Calvert County, activated his emergency lights to pull Gaskill over. Gaskill responded by activating her lights “to communicate to Trooper Lewis that she was also a sworn law enforcement officer,” the complaint said.
Gaskill’s lawyers said in the news release that the stop was because Gaskill had been “talking on her cell phone.” Maryland law allows officers to use their phones for police matters, the attorneys said.
According to the complaint, Lewis ran Gaskill’s license plate, and that showed the vehicle was registered to the Prince George’s County police.
Gaskill got out of her car to find out why she had been stopped and to notify Lewis that she was a sworn officer with the county police department, the complaint said. The trooper, it alleged, angrily ordered her to “get back into your car.”
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“Trooper Lewis was screaming so irately that Lieutenant Gaskill started watching his hands due to a fear that he would pull out his firearm and threaten her with it,” Gaskill’s lawyers alleged in the complaint.
Gaskill responded to Lewis, “I am a police officer,” according to the complaint.
As Gaskill turned to get back in her registered police vehicle, Lewis “grabbed and threw” her onto the vehicle. Lewis pulled and twisted her arm behind her back in a “forceful manner” and “applied great upward pressure … which inflicted pain,” the complaint said.
Lewis then handcuffed Gaskill, grabbed her off the car and “pushed her toward the curb.” He “screamed ‘get on the ground’” twice, after Gaskill said she did not want to, according to the complaint. Gaskill sat on the curb “in fear” because “she did not want him to hurt her anymore.”
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A second Prince George’s County police officer soon arrived and confirmed that Gaskill was a sworn officer. While still in handcuffs, Gaskill offered to get her police identification card from her car, but Lewis would not let her, according to the complaint. He also declined to remove her handcuffs, “explaining that she could obtain a firearm in the vehicle and shoot him,” according to the complaint. Lewis was treated at a hospital for injuries she suffered in the encounter, according to the complaint.
Lewis charged Gaskill with failure to obey a lawful order and resisting arrest, and she was issued a warning for her phone use while driving, according to the complaint. The police department put her on a non-contact status with the public. But the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office ultimately declined to prosecute the case, according to the complaint.
In a motion to dismiss the complaint, attorney general’s office lawyers argued that Lewis had statutory immunity and “was confronted with a tense situation after his legal traffic stop.”
Gaskill “immediately exited her vehicle unprompted” and “did not comply with Tpr. Lewis’ command for her to return to her vehicle when she was asked to do so,” the motion to dismiss stated.
Gaskill retired in 2020 from the Prince George’s County Police Department after a 25-year career, according to the release from her attorneys.
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