Plaintiff:
Austin Richard
Incident date:
05/09/2014
Location:
6451 S. Cottage Grove Ave.
Allegations:
Tharp and Richard, who lived in south suburban Homewood, left a barbershop in the Woodlawn neighborhood to walk to a nearby convenience store. They were immediately stopped by Sgt. Rashan, who searched both men, demanded to see their ID, then accused them of gang loitering and ordered them to go home. They told the sergeant that they could not go home right away because they did not live in Chicago, and Rashan threatened to arrest them if he saw them again. When Tharp and Richard walked back to the barbershop to wait inside for a friend, Rashan walked in behind them and arrested them. Their friend told the sergeant that the men were with him, had no connection to the area and were not in a gang. But Rashan called more officers to the scene and the two were taken to a police station and charged with gang loitering. The charges were later dropped.