Clearwater settles lawsuit alleging racial bias in wrongful arrest

CLEARWATER — The city has paid $50,000 to settle two lawsuits filed by a man who claimed Clearwater police officers violated his civil rights by arresting him for a burglary he did not commit.

Jacques LaPread, 51, was arrested in June 2019 and spent a night in jail after police spotted him at a gas station and misidentified him as another black man who had used a card there credit stolen that evening. Five months later, the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office chose not to pursue charges due to concerns over identification.

LaPread filed two lawsuits in Tampa federal court in 2023 – one against the Clearwater Police Department and the three officers involved and the other against former Chief Daniel Slaughter. Both claimed his arrest was the result of racial profiling that violated the U.S. Constitution.

Clearwater Risk Manager Todd Morrone said the city did not admit to violating LaPread's civil rights in the settlement and argued in court that there was probable cause for the arrest. But he said the city recognized that LaPread was wrongly arrested and sought to avoid additional costs to taxpayers. The terms were reached on May 5 and the cases were each dismissed in late May, according to court records.

Slaughter acknowledged that LaPread's arrest was a “misidentification” by officers who should have investigated more thoroughly, but denied that it was due to racial profiling or a cultural problem in the department.

“I always recognized that we could have done better in this case,” said Slaughter, who retired as chief last year and became deputy city manager.

Although he sought damages of more than $100,000, LaPread said he wanted closure after an injustice that turned his life upside down. His goal, he said, was to expose “sloppy police work” that had prevented him from getting a promotion to his cybersecurity job while he faced burglary and fraud charges to the credit card.

“I just want them to do a better job,” LaPread said. “I’m not trying to take anyone’s livelihood, even if they don’t care about mine.”

After an internal police investigation, the three officers involved – Michael Buis, Kyle Bingham and Henry Giles – received reprimands. Bingham and Giles are still officers in the patrol division.

Buis later resigned, but his departure was not the result of disciplinary action, a spokesperson said last year.

The investigation began on June 20, 2019, after a woman called police to report that her bracelet, containing her credit cards, military ID and other items, had been stolen from her Jeep at Eddie C. Moore Softball Complex.

At 8:06 p.m. that evening, one of the cards was used at a Speedway gas station on McMullen Booth Road to buy cigarettes, according to LaPread's complaints. A credit card from the Jeep was also used at a nearby Walgreens.

That same evening, LaPread stopped at the Speedway, withdrew $20 from the ATM and used some of the money to make a purchase, according to the complaints.

On his way out, LaPread held the door open for officers who, unbeknownst to him, were arriving to investigate the use of the stolen credit card, according to the complaints.

“One of the officers thought LaPread 'looked suspicious,' so he watched LaPread enter his vehicle and noted his license plate number,” a complaint states.

After running LaPread's license plates, officers obtained surveillance video of the man who used the stolen credit card at the Speedway. The suspect bore no resemblance to LaPread other than being an African-American male, according to the complaints.

The suspect had a full beard with sideburns and was wearing long gray pants and a long-sleeved white shirt. LaPread wore a white T-shirt and blue cargo pants, according to the lawsuits. His booking photo shows a goatee but no beard.

According to the police incident report for the case, officers identified LaPread “using surveillance video” and a witness statement from the gas station clerk. In response to the lawsuit, Senior Deputy City Attorney Michael Fuino claimed there was no evidence that the officers viewed the video before the arrest to support the claim that they violated his rights civilians.

At 9:38 p.m., officers arrived at LaPread's home, where he was outside. They approached him, guns drawn, held him at gunpoint and arrested him in front of his mother and young children, according to the complaints.

Officers searched the car but did not find any of the items reported stolen in the Jeep, according to the complaints. They also had no evidence that LaPread was at the Walgreens, where the stolen credit card was also used, according to the complaints.

LaPread alleged the officers also failed to attempt to confirm the payment method he used at the gas station, which would have proven he used cash and not a credit card stolen.

LaPread was released on bail the next day. He said he had to disclose his arrest to his employer, making him ineligible for a promotion.

In November, prosecutors declined to file charges because they were “very uncomfortable with the identification of this person who had been arrested,” prosecutor Bruce Bartlett told the Tampa Bay Times last year.

On Friday, LaPread said he was focused on his work and moving forward, but there were still impacts. The burglary case still appears on his record even though no charges have been filed.

“I can't let this one thing stop me from moving forward, it's unfortunately a part of life,” LaPread said.

And after LaPread's wrongful arrest, police never arrested anyone else in the 2019 burglary case, Lt. Meg Hasty confirmed Friday.