Philadelphia LGBTQ official and her husband say they intend to sue following their arrest on I-76: ‘I’ve never felt more helpless’

Philadelphia’s top LGBTQ official and her husband called Thursday 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 lawyers at a news conference in Center City, Celena Morrison-McLean and her husband, Darius McLean, recounted their harrowing experience during the stop on I-76 — part of which Morrison-McLean captured in a 90-second cell phone video shared on social media, raising questions about the episode 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. “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.”

McLean — chief operating officer of the Philadelphia-based William Way Community Center and director of the Arcila-Adams Trans Resource Center — said that “as scary as the incident was, I wouldn’t do anything differently” if he encountered the same situation again. “There’s no way that I was leaving my wife on the highway with a state trooper … when I saw she was being pulled over in the rain on the side of the interstate.”

After his wife was pulled over, McLean said the trooper immediately charged at his vehicle, with his gun drawn.

“He truly was aggressive,” said Kevin Mincey, a lawyer for the couple. “I think it’s clear from the video that trooper was aggressive.”

State police have said that they are conducting a full investigation, and that the trooper — whom the agency has declined to identify — has been placed on restricted duty, meaning that he will not be on patrol. A state police spokesperson declined to comment further Thursday, citing the investigation.

» READ MORE: The state trooper who arrested a city LGBT official has been placed on restricted duty during an internal investigation

According to their lawyers, the couple on Saturday picked up a car — a gray Infiniti — from a family member in New Jersey, and Morrison-McLean was driving the vehicle to a Philadelphia mechanic while her husband trailed behind in a rental car.

On I-76 near 30th Street Station, they encountered a state trooper driving in front of Morrison-McLean.

Morrison-McLean aimed to stay two or three car lengths behind the trooper, Mincey said, “because quite frankly, no one would … knowingly tailgate a state trooper on the highway.”

But the trooper alternated between slowing down and speeding up, Mincey said, and so Morrison-McLean switched lanes. At that point, Mincey said, the trooper slowed and wedged his vehicle between Morrison-McLean’s and her husband’s, turning on the lights and sirens as she sought a safe place to pull over.

McLean, in the rental car, pulled off behind the trooper — expecting, at worst, his wife to receive a ticket, Mincey said.

But the trooper never approached Morrison-McLean’s car, the lawyer said, and instead charged toward her husband’s car with his weapon drawn, shouting expletives. Mincey said 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, Mincey said.

State police have said McLean was “verbally combative” as the trooper approached, and that he “refused multiple lawful orders.”

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

As the trooper forced McLean to the ground on the side of the highway, his wife began recording on her phone, Mincey said. Later, while she was in custody, Morrison-McLean sent the video to her sister, who posted the clip to social media.

“That’s my husband,” she is heard repeating as the trooper appears to lean over a cowering McLean, handcuffing him. Later, Morrison-McLean yelled: “I work for the mayor!”

“When you’re faced with that type of aggression, you hope that you can just say something that might get that officer’s attention, that might make them realize there might be some repercussions for what’s happening,” Mincey said.

But the trooper did not let up, Mincey said, putting his body weight on McLean’s back while handcuffing him as the man pleaded with the trooper to let him go. At one point, McLean moved out of the way of traffic rushing by on the highway, the couple’s lawyers said.

The trooper, Mincey said, then charged at Morrison-McLean with his arm out, “almost like a linebacker,” knocking her still-recording phone out of her hands and hitting her face.

“He just punched me,” Morrison-McLean is heard saying in the video, as the camera panned toward the sky.

The trooper, Mincey said, then forced Morrison-McLean onto the hood of the car and handcuffed her.

According to their lawyers, the pair did not resist, and asked repeatedly why they were being arrested. At the state police barracks, where the couple was detained for hours before being released, “they were told they’re prisoners and they don’t have any rights,” Mincey said.

State police attempted to charge the couple with resisting arrest, obstruction of justice, disorderly conduct, and summary traffic citations. But the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office declined the charges, and they were released from custody Saturday evening.

Police said Morrison-McLean was pulled over for multiple vehicle code violations, including driving with an expired and suspended Pennsylvania registration, headlights that were not illuminated in the rain, illegally tinted windows, and driving too close to another car.

But the couple’s lawyers cast doubt on that account. The gray Infiniti, Mincey said, did not have a front license plate, questioning how the trooper could have known the registration on Morrison-McLean’s car was expired before pulling her over.

The District Attorney’s Office has said no charging decisions have been made, but that it is investigating all aspects of the encounter.

Mincey and legal partner Riley Ross have said they plan to file civil action, but are “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 to learn more about the trooper’s experience and training. “We have to get into the root of why things like this keep happening.”

The trooper was not wearing a body camera, police have said, vowing earlier this week to prioritize a rollout of body-worn cameras to Philadelphia troopers in the coming months. There is dash camera footage of the encounter, the lawyers said.

The lawyers said that they have heard from witnesses, and said they encouraged those who may have seen the encounter to come forward.

“At the minimum,” Morrison-McLean said, “the Pennsylvania State Police owe Darius and I an apology that is equally as public as the way they discarded our rights on Interstate 76.”