Lawyer handcuffed at ATM sues police for alleged racial profiling
A Houston personal-injury lawyer has filed a suit alleging racial profiling after he was handcuffed at an ATM by police responding to a bank alarm.
Lawyer Dennis Spurling, who is black, says he was at the ATM outside the door of his office on Nov. 14 when two men in dark clothing told him to put his hands up, handcuffed him and took his gun, ABC 13 reports. Spurling, who has a license to carry a concealed handgun, says he is lucky he didn’t shoot the officers because they didn’t identify themselves.
If the officers had questioned him, Spurling says, “My response would have been, ‘I was just going to the ATM machine and that’s my name on the wall right there and I’m an attorney and I practice law here.’ ” As he spoke with the broadcast station, Spurling gestured to the wall inside the adjacent building.
“The situation was humiliating. It was insulting,” Spurling told ABC 13.
Spurling says the officers apologized after learning the bank alarm had been accidentally tripped by the cleaning crew. Spurling plans to donate any recovery to victims of racial profiling and wrongful arrest.
The city released a statement to ABC 13 saying it has to research the lawsuit, but it appears the plaintiff and a companion were the only people on the scene when police arrived. “There is nothing to indicate that the plaintiff was the victim of racial profiling,” the statement says.
Spurling recently posted an ad to YouTube (see below) in which his ex-wife explains that Spurling practices personal injury law and would be more than happy to help viewers with claims. “He doesn’t get paid unless you get paid, and as we first wives know, the more our ex-husbands get paid the more we get paid,” the woman says. “So let me help him help you.”
