PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Two leaders in Philadelphia's LGBTQ community spoke out Thursday for the first time since video documenting their arrest by a Pennsylvania State Police trooper during a traffic stop Saturday was shared widely on social media.
"We have nothing to hide," said Celena Morrison, who leads the city’s Office of LGBT Affairs.
Morrison alleges the state trooper aggressively arrested her and her husband, Darius McLean, because they are both Black. At a press briefing Thursday, lawyers for the couple announced they are preparing to take civil action, questioning the adequacy of state police training.
"Fearing the worst was about to happen, I yelled out to the officer ‘I work for the mayor!’ multiple times, hoping that would make him realize that he was dealing with people he did not need to be afraid of,” Morrison said Thursday.
“I now know that there was nothing I could have done or said that was going to keep this trooper from violating our rights."
Lawyers for the couple say Morrison was on the Schuylkill Expressway, driving a newly acquired car to an auto repair shop on Saturday. McLean, who is chief operating officer at William Way LGBT Community Center, was following behind her in a rental car.
When a trooper pulled Morrison over for alleged code violations, stopping behind her on a stretch of overpass, McLean also stopped along the shoulder, pulling up behind the trooper's vehicle.
"There was no way that I was leaving my wife on the highway with a state trooper,” he said. “I had to stop and to make sure Celena was okay when I saw she was being pulled over."
The couple allege that the trooper confronted McLean first, ordered him to exit his vehicle and, without giving him time to comply, forcibly pulled him out of the vehicle. McLean says the trooper pointed his service weapon at him and pushed him to the pavement and handcuffed him while he lay there.
"I never felt more helpless than in those moments when this trooper held my husband's life in his hands,” said Morrison, reading from a prepared statement Thursday.
Morrison recorded a video of part of the incident with her cell phone camera, calling out to the trooper, identifying McLean as her husband. The video does not show the initial interaction between McLean and the trooper, when McLean says the trooper pointed his gun at him.
The trooper can be heard repeatedly telling McLean to stop resisting. It is unclear in the video what behavior the trooper is referring to. McLean, who is lying on the wet pavement, curled up in a protective posture, can be heard calling back to Morrison, “It’s OK” and “I don’t know why he’s doing this.”
With McLean immobilized, the trooper is seen approaching Morrison, telling her to stop recording. He is seen making a sudden movement, and the screen goes gray, leaving only garbled audio.
McLean says his memory of the incident is horrifying.
"The images of him pointing his gun at me and later charging at my wife, tackling her as I laid handcuffed on the street, are pictures I will never forget."
The District Attorney's Office has not decided whether charges will be filed against the couple. They maintain they did nothing wrong.
“It's disheartening that, as Black individuals, we are all too familiar with the use of the phrase ‘stop resisting’ as a green light for excessive force by law enforcement,” said Morrison on Thursday. “Darius and I did nothing wrong and did not deserve the way we were treated during the arrest and by the other troopers who responded to the highway."
Their lawyer, Kevin Mincey, says a civil lawsuit is in the works.
"The level of training that this officer received, and other officers received, may lead us to take different paths as to how we bring that civil action, but we most certainly plan to be in court with this."
State police declined to identify the trooper but said he was put on limited duty while the investigation continues. A Pennsylvania State Police spokesman says there will be no further comment on the incident during the active investigation .