Lawsuit says West Baton Rouge Police Stopped Black Man for Wearing Saggy Pants - then Killed him in a "Callous & Cowardly Manner"

From [HERE] and [HERE] Exactly one week after Ervin Edwards was found dead inside a padded jail cell in the West Baton Rouge Parish Prison, his family filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Federal Court. "He walked into that police station. He walked in there and he had to be rolled out." 

According to the lawsuit, Edwards was traveling with his girlfriend back to Jefferson Parish when he stopped for gas in Port Allen. The couple got into a minor altercation and police were dispatched on the scene around 5:47 p.m. after the clerk at the station called 911.

By the time officers arrived the couple had stopped arguing, the lawsuit states (in other words at the time of the stop Edwards was not disturbing the peace or otherwise engaged in any unlawful activity -bw). However, sheriff’s deputies questioned Edwards anyway because he was wearing sagging pants, the lawsuit reads.

According to the lawsuit, when Edwards became flippant with deputies about his pants the deputies told him he was going to jail. In the lawsuit it states Edwards jerked away from a deputy and asked, “Why am I going to jail? I didn’t do anything.”

Another deputy grabbed Edwards and threatened to use a stun gun on him if he didn’t submit to police, the lawsuit states. Edwards’ girlfriend told officers not to shoot Edwards with the stun gun because he had high-blood pressure, had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and was deaf in his left ear, which she explained as the reason he spoke so loudly to authorities.

After deputies were able to handcuff Edwards, identified in the lawsuit as weighing more than 300 pounds, he was transported to the parish jail where he died in a padded cell shortly after he arrived, the lawsuit states.

“This was a callous act ... to kill an unarmed man,” Porter said. “I don’t have to wait for an autopsy report. He was alive when he walked into that jail. They beat him, tased him and now they’re trying to cover it up.”

Edwards was brought to the West Baton Rouge Parish Jail where, according to Sheriff Mike Cazes, he continued to resist officers and deputies once the cuffs were taken off. 

"They gave him a 3-count demand saying ‘OK if you don't cooperate you will be tased.' And all three times, ultimately, he used some profanity back toward the policeman and said, ‘Whatever. Do what you have to do.' in that sense of the wording," Cazes said. 

Edwards was then tased in the buttocks area and placed in a holding cell, Cazes said. Deputies noticed Edwards banging his head against the wall so Edwards was moved to a padded isolation cell. He was found unresponsive less than 30 minutes later and the coroner's office was notified. Edwards was pronounced dead inside the jail. 

Cazes said at his at his request Edwards' body was taken to Jefferson Parish for an independent autopsy. The results are pending toxicology tests that could take up to three weeks. The Sheriff also said cameras in the jail recorded the incident.