Cumming police officer accused of racial profiling cleared by chief

CUMMING, Ga. — A Cumming police officer accused of racially profiling a woman and violating her rights has been exonerated of any wrongdoing by his chief.

Ashley Harris told Channel 2’s Mike Petchenik the officer wrongfully detained her Nov. 15 on Marketplace Boulevard while looking for three men involved in a car crash.

Newly released body cam footage shows the interaction between Harris and Officer J. Fitzpatrick.

“(Can I) talk to you?” The officer can be heard asking Harris as she walked to her car.

“About?” she responded.

“You involved in that wreck?” he asked.

“What wreck?” she asked.

That’s when the officer asked Harris for her identification and video shows she refused.

“I’m not giving you anything,” she said.

“Alright, put your hands behind your back,” the officer responded.

For the next 40 minutes, Harris and her attorney say she sat in the back of a squad car while the officer and a Forsyth County sheriff’s deputy corroborated her story that she was inside a Best Buy Store at the time of the crash.

“We’ll get it straightened out,” Fitzpatrick can be heard telling Harris.

The officer and a Forsyth County deputy later determined Harris had been telling the truth, and they let her go.

Harris filed a complaint against Fitzpatrick, alleging he violated her constitutional rights. Her attorney told Petchenik the officer had no probable cause to detain her.

In an internal affairs report released Thursday, Chief David Marsh exonerated Fitzpatrick of any wrongdoing, saying he acted “reasonably.”

“Officer Fitzpatrick did not violate any department policy,” the chief wrote. “Most of all, in no way did Officer Fitzpatrick violate Ms. Harris’s civil or constitutional rights. Nor did Officer Fitzpatrick intentionally inflict undue bodily harm or pain on Ms. Harris.”

In the report, Fitzpatrick said he wasn’t sure if witnesses gave incorrect information about whether the suspects were male or female, so when Harris refused to provide her identification, he told investigators it fueled suspicions she was hiding something.

Fitzpatrick also told investigators when he initially saw Harris, it wasn’t “readily apparent” to him whether she was a man or a woman, so he continued on with his investigation.

In the body cam footage, a paramedic for Central EMS also arrived on the scene to treat Harris, who was complaining of back problems.

The paramedic’s comments appeared to further confuse the situation.

“This one was involved in that wreck,” the paramedic can be heard telling the officer, amid Harris’ protests. “She was in a car accident. That’s the one they say ran. She ran.”

In the video, the paramedic tells the officer that Harris is fine, and never treats her despite complaints about back pain.

“She’ll probably test positive for drugs, too, because that reeks of weed,” the woman told officers.

Harris denies that she had been smoking any marijuana at the time of her detainment.

In a statement, Central EMS stood behind its employee:

“Our paramedic approached that second individual in the back of the police car, and the woman reported that she was not involved in a motor vehicle crash. The paramedic had another individual to assess in close proximity and triaged the priorities of the scenes. She notified the officer that the ambulance would be available to return if needed, and proceeded to respond to the original call for assistance.

We do not believe that the company’s paramedic did anything that caused harm or injury. We will, however, continue to review the incident and the body cam footage provided recently to the company. We will provide training and direction as needed to our employees.”

The report says officers ultimately arrested three men they believe were transporting drugs through Georgia at the time of the wreck.

Harris’ attorney, Zack Greenamyre, issued a statement about the findings:

“We disagree with the report's ultimate conclusion that Fitzpatrick did not violate Harris' constitutional rights to be free from arrests without sufficient justification. We are not surprised that the Cumming Police Department has sided with its officer instead of a citizen who claims that CPD officer Fitzpatrick engaged in racial profiling.

What is more surprising is that the department has taken Fitzpatrick's word over Harris' based on such weak evidence. First, the department takes Fitzpatrick's statement that he could not tell Harris' gender at face value, when the objective evidence, the video, shows him immediately and consistently referring to Harris as female. Second, the department believes Fitzpatrick's claim that he smelled marijuana coming from Harris, when again, the objective evidence shows there was no marijuana on Harris, in her car, or anywhere nearby.

Taking away those facts, the only remaining fact linking Harris to the people suspected of fleeing the scene of the accident is race. That is not enough to make an arrest that complies with the United States Constitution.”

Woman claims officer racially profiled her; police launch investigation On Nov. 15, records show Cumming Police responded to Market Place Boulevard after several 911 calls about a car accident.

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