Judge orders LAPD to destroy photos taken at BLM attorney's home while hunting thief

A Los Angeles judge has sided with a Black Lives Matter leader's lawyer and ordered police to destroy photographs obtained through an alleged “robbery” incident that sparked an investigation by internal affairs

BLM's ongoing conflicts with law enforcement took a new turn in Los Angeles amid an ongoing lawsuit against police dating back to 2020. While local leader Melina Abdullah had sued the LAPD for allegedly violating their civil rights during the height of the George Floyd riots in response. in the face of a “hitting” incident, his lawyer, Dermot Givens, made the same claim after a raid on his home on Tuesday.

“It's totally embarrassing. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but this is something that was planned.” claimed the Los Angeles Times lawyer.

Givens, one of the attorneys handling Abdullah's lawsuit against the LAPD, denounced the actions of law enforcement, who he alleged “ransacked” his home after it was said that a device AirTag tracking led them to the area related to some robbery.

“I'm like, 'Are you hitting on me?'” he told the Times. “And they said, 'Who are you?' And I said, 'I live here!'”

The lawyer lamented that files related to Abdullah's case were lying on a table and were photographed by officers executing a warrant said to belong to a person named “Tyler.” Erin Darling, another attorney at California State University in Los Angeles, a professor of pan-African studies, filed a request to destroy the photographs, return any material taken and provide a copy of the search warrant.

In the submission for which Judge Rupert Byrdsong granted the request, Darling claimed that the documented documents contained “parts of Mr. [Givens’] case file and potentially attorney work product.”

“The LAPD stepped in [Givens’] lawyer work product,” he added.

Along with the routine agitation witnessed across the country by BLM activists, in 2020, after Abdullah's first “skate,” he could be heard at the door of the home of then-district attorney Los Angeles Jackie Lacey confronting the prosecutor's husband who had pulled a gun in self-defense.

When he asked if the prosecutor was home, David Lacey replied, “I'm going to shoot you, get off my porch!”

LA's top prosecutor's husband accused of pointing gun at BLM activists invading his front porch https://t.co/bzvdehvrFq

— BPR (@BIZPACReview) August 5, 2020

In his own reaction to the execution of a warrant at Givens' home, the activist told the Times: “The first [I thought] it was like, “Oh, it's crazy that they hit the lawyer who's suing them on my behalf for hitting me.” Along with, “Is Dermot all right?”

He similarly took to social media to delve into his allegations against law enforcement, writing to X, “Now LAPD is beating up the lawyers who represent us? That's NUTS!”

So now the LAPD is beating the lawyers who represent us? This is NUTS! https://t.co/n9eh10OiQV

— Melina Abdullah (@DocMellyMel) January 27, 2024

For its part, the LAPD gave a standard response amid an ongoing investigation, and spokesman Capt. Kelly Muniz told the Associated Press: “This is an open criminal investigation as well as an internal affairs investigation.” .

Staff writer

A native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College, where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and seeker of truth, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and dog, and when he's not researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel ·the.

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