Philly LGBT official to hold news conference after arrest during traffic stop confrontation

Philadelphia’s top LGBTQ official and her husband Thursday called for an apology from Pennsylvania State Police and announced plans to file a lawsuit following a heated confrontation during a traffic stop on I-76 Saturday that ended in the couple’s arrest and a state trooper placed on restricted duty.

Accompanied by attorneys at a news conference in Center City Thursday, Celena Morrison-McLean and her husband, Darius McLean, recounted their harrowing experience of being pulled over on I-76 — part of which Morrison-McLean captured in a 90-second cell phone video shared on social media, raising questions about the incident and arrest.

“I’ve never felt more helpless than in those moments,” Morrison-McLean, the city’s executive director of the Office of LGBT Affairs, told reporters Thursday. “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.”

Attorney Kevin Mincey, and his legal partner Riley Ross, have said they plan to file civil action, but are still “evaluating our options as far as the claims and where to bring them.”

“We want transparency, we want all the facts to come out,” Ross said, adding that the legal team is seeking details on the state trooper’s experience and training. “We have to get into the root of why things like this keep happening.”

The officer was not wearing a body camera during the encounter, police have said, vowing earlier this week to prioritize a rollout of body-worn cameras to Philadelphia troopers over the coming months.

Attorney Kevin Mincey cast doubt on authorities' account of Saturday's incident during a news conference Thursday. The car, Mincey said, did not have a front license plate, making it unlikely the trooper could have run Morrison-McLean’s plates before pulling her over.

“Those were developed long after the stop, after Celena and Darius had been in custody for hours,” the attorney said.

When state police officers asked her for the recording of the confrontation after she was arrested, Morrison-McLean also sent the video to her sister, who posted the clip online, where it was widely circulated, Mincey said.

The police officer who arrested the couple Saturday never approached Celena Morrison-McLean’s car, attorney Kevin Mincey said, instead immediately running toward her husband’s car with his weapon drawn, shouting expletives at the man. Mincey said Darius McLean raised his hands in the air, telling the trooper that Morrison-McLean was his wife, at which point the trooper shouted at him to get out of the car.

Morrison-McLean, who was on the phone with her husband as the officer was pulling her over, overheard the interaction, Mincey said. And when she realized the officer was ordering her husband out of his vehicle, she exited the car, letting the trooper know McLean was her husband, and that he had stopped on the side of the highway to accompany her.

As the trooper forced McLean to the ground on the side of the highway, Morrison-McLean whipped out her phone and began recording, Mincey said, attempting to get the officer’s attention.

At a press conference Thursday, Celena Morrison-McLean, her husband Darius McLean, and their attorneys explained that they had picked up the car — a gray Infiniti registered in Pennsylvania — from a family member in New Jersey over the weekend, and were driving in Philadelphia to a nearby mechanic when they encountered a state trooper driving in front of Morrison-McLean. McLean trailed behind his wife on the highway in a rental car, attorney Kevin Mincey told reporters.

Morrison-McLean aimed to stay two or three car lanes behind the trooper, Mincey said “because quite frankly, no one would … knowingly tailgate a state trooper on the highway.” The trooper, Mincey said, alternated between slowing down and speeding up in front of her, and so she switched lanes.

At that point, Mincey said, the trooper slowed down and wedged his vehicle between Morrison-McLean’s and her husband’s, “immediately” flipping on the lights and sirens as she sought a safe place to pull over.

Philadelphia’s top LGBTQ official and her husband were on their way to a mechanic with a car that had fallen into disrepair when she was pulled over by a Pennsylvania state trooper on Interstate 76 Saturday, leading to a heated confrontation which ended in the couple’s arrest, the officer placed on restricted duty, and the couple calling for an apology and transparency, their lawyers said Thursday.

During a news conference Thursday, Celena Morrison-McLean, her husband Darius McLean, and their attorneys recounted their harrowing experience of being pulled over on I-76, as they said the officer immediately charged at McLean’s vehicle with his gun drawn.

“I’ve never felt more helpless than in those moments,” Morrison-McLean, the city’s executive director of the Office of LGBT Affairs, told reporters Thursday. “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.”

The married LGBTQ leaders arrested during a contentious traffic stop in Philadelphia were driving separately to take a car for repairs when a trooper pulled one of them over, their lawyer said Tuesday.

Celena Morrison-McLean, who leads the city’s Office of LGBT Affairs and is a top aide to Mayor Cherelle Parker, and her husband were detained Saturday for about 12 hours following the 9 a.m. highway stop.

“She’s broken up about it,” lawyer Kevin Mincey said.

Investigators will be missing what’s often an important piece of evidence: body camera footage.

Paris said the trooper involved in the stop was not outfitted with a body camera because, despite funding for every trooper to have one, cameras have not yet been rolled out in Philadelphia.

Lt. Col. George L. Bivens, a deputy commissioner, said troopers in parts of south-central and southwestern Pennsylvania already wear body cameras, and that state police would expedite the rollout to distribute body cameras to troopers in Philadelphia over the next eight weeks.

After the controversial arrest of a top Philadelphia official and her husband by Pennsylvania State Police over the weekend, the agency on Monday announced that the trooper involved has been placed on restricted duty and said it is expediting the rollout of body cameras for troopers in Philadelphia.

Celena Morrison-McLean, the city’s executive director of the Office of LGBT Affairs, and her husband, Darius McLean, were arrested Saturday morning after a heated confrontation on I-76 that began after a traffic stop. Police said the trooper pulled Morrison-McLean over for multiple vehicle code violations, including driving with an expired and suspended registration, before things escalated.

State police are conducting a full investigation into the stop and encounter that followed, said Lt. Adam Reed, state police spokesperson.

Two prominent leaders in Philadelphia’s LGBTQ community — including the director of a city office — were detained by Pennsylvania State Police following a heated confrontation during a traffic stop.

Celena Morrison-McLean, the city’s executive director of the Office of LGBT Affairs, and her husband, Darius McLean, were arrested Saturday morning, on I-76, after state police said a trooper attempted to pull over Morrison-McLean for multiple traffic violations. Things escalated after police said McLean became “verbally combative” toward the trooper, then resisted arrest. Morrison-McLean was arrested after police said she “interfered in the trooper’s attempt to arrest” McLean.

Questions arose, though, after video of the interaction posted online showed McLean and Morrison-McLean saying they did not know why they were being arrested, and pleading to the trooper to let them go. Later in the video, as Morrison is being detained, she can be heard saying, “He just punched me.”