A former chief of the Ladue Police Department has sued the posh St. Louis suburb, claiming he lost his job after refusing to seek out black drivers for traffic stops.
Larry White also says a city councilman told him to look the other way if Ladue residents were driving drunk or otherwise breaking the law.
White filed suit March 24 in St. Louis County Circuit Court against the City of Ladue, Mayor Irene Holmes and members of the City Council.
In his petition, White alleges Holmes told him she wanted “those people” to be stopped and pulled out of their cars so that others would see what happened and avoid coming to Ladue. White said he understood “those people” to mean black drivers.
Reached by phone by Missouri Lawyers Media, Holmes declined to comment about the suit and hung up.
Ladue’s attorney, John Maupin, said he had reviewed the same allegations when the council fired White. He said he’s confident the City has acted properly and that the litigation comes from someone who lost his job and should be viewed in that light.
“His lawsuit is groundless,” Maupin said.
Maupin, of Maupin-Eckenrode in Clayton, said the “those people” comment White refers to stems from a series of shoplifting incidents, after which the City responded by stepping up visible police patrols in the area, by car and foot. He said White directed that effort.
“I can categorically deny that it involved any racial aspect whatsoever,” Maupin said. “‘Those people’ referred to people who were breaking the law.”
The suit cites Ladue’s data reported annually to the state to show that black people made up a smaller share of the total involved in traffic stops, arrests and searches in 2008, when White was chief, compared to 2006, before he was in charge.
For example, 22.6 percent of traffic stops by Ladue officers involved black drivers in 2006, compared to 14.5 percent two years later. Black drivers’ share of stops statewide in 2008 was 17.1 percent.
Black drivers made up 42.7 percent of the total searched after Ladue traffic stops in 2006 compared to 37.1 percent in 2008, data shows.
Blacks make up just 1 percent of Ladue’s population and about 10.8 percent of the state population.
However, as White himself noted in a media report last summer, looking at the local share of the population doesn’t give a complete picture. That’s because police deal with those driving through Ladue as well, and portions of Highway 40 and Interstate 170, for example, run through that city.
The case is Larry White v. City of Ladue et al, 10SL-CC01184.
The story is reprinted (and edited) with permission from Missouri Lawyers Media.