Dashcam footage of a controversial police pat-down has been released after Tennessee prosecutors said Monday that the Tennessee state trooper involved was cleared of criminal wrongdoing in two traffic stops in August.
Mother-of-two Patricia Wilson has claimed in a $100,000 sexual harassment lawsuit against Tennessee State Trooper Isaiah Lloyd that Lloyd used his police powers to sexually harass her and touch her inappropriately.
Videos by PopCulture.com
Dashcam video from Aug. 16, 2017 shows Lloyd stop Wilson twice in one day in Northeast Tennessee, not far from the Kentucky border. In footage from the first stop, in which Wilson was on her way to her evening janitorial job, Lloyd pulled her over for not wearing a seatbelt.
In the video, Lloyd asks Wilson if she is under the influence as she exits her vehicle, a black pickup truck.
“No, I do no drugs, no nothing, swear to God,” Wilson replies.
Lloyd has Wilson place her hands on the hood of his police cruiser and bend over; he then pats down her waistband area for about 15 seconds. Wilson says he placed her hands inside her shorts and touched her inappropriately. Then he asks her to shake out her bra to show there’s nothing hidden in it.
Wilson said in the suit that she was afraid to say anything because Lloyd had the power to arrest her.
Lloyd continues to question her about drug use, to which she replies that she occasionally takes prescription Ambien to help her sleep. Lloyd informs Wilson that Ambien is a narcotic and administers field sobriety tests.
Ambien is not classified as a narcotic by the DEA, the Daily Mail reports.
After six minutes of an eye nystagmus test, heel-to-toe walking, and counting with one leg raised six inches from the ground, Wilson gets back into her car.
The second stop, about three hours later, shows Wilson returning from work in the same truck. This time, she had her two children, ages 8 and 3, in the vehicle.
Lloyd informed Wilson her windows were overly tinted and said she was “all over the road” according to her lawsuit as reported by WATE.
The video from the second stop does not show Wilson exit the vehicle and their conversation cannot be heard.
According to the suit, Lloyd told Wilson during that stop that “We have to stop meeting like this.”
Wilson’s lawsuit says Lloyd said he had already gotten Wilson “out of two tickets during the earlier stop and would not ticket her for the window tint.”
The district attorney general’s office reviewed the dashcam footage and Lloyd’s actions before clearing him.
In a statement, the DA’s office found the actions could not “form the basis for any criminal charge against him,” WKRN reports.
“Our review of this matter revealed that Trooper Lloyd’s actions were inconsistent with his training and Tennessee Department of Safety General Orders,” the statement said. “However, we do not believe that Trooper Lloyd’s actions during his encounters with Ms. Wilson in Campbell County on August 16, 2017 form the basis for any criminal charge against him.”
The Tennessee Highway Patrol disagreed with the DA that there had been any breach of professionalism.
“After careful consideration and review, the Tennessee Highway Patrol Command Staff has advised me that Trooper Isaiah Lloyd conducted this traffic stop in a professional manner in an effort to protect the motoring public,” THP Col. Tracy Trott said in a statement.
The DA said that he had dropped the seat belt ticket that Lloyd wrote Wilson.
Trooper Lloyd, who was placed on desk duty during the internal investigation, has been placed back on active duty.
