Delaware State University, a historically Black college, has announced it will file a formal complaint with the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, nearly a month after Georgia officials pulled a bus carrying the university’s women’s lacrosse team over for a traffic violation and searched it for drugs. The school said the search left the student athletes “humiliated” and accused officials of misconduct and racial profiling.
Tony Allen, the university’s president, said in a statement Friday that the university conducted its own investigation into the incident and found that “the stop and search raises serious constitutional and civil rights issues.”
“From our standpoint, the evidence is clear and compelling,” Allen said.
Liberty County Sheriff William Bowman, who is Black, said his office is conducting a formal review of the traffic stop. He said deputies had stopped other commercial vehicles the same morning along I-95 and found drugs on a different bus. The team’s chartered bus was stopped because it was traveling in the left lane, which is illegal in Georgia.
The sheriff said deputies decided to search the team’s bus when a drug-sniffing dog “alerted” alongside it.
“I do not exercise racial profiling, allow racial profiling or encourage racial profiling,” Bowman told reporters. The sheriff added that based on what he already knows about the stop he believes it was legal.
Georgia courts have held that the odor of marijuana is enough to give authorities probable cause to search vehicles without a warrant. The sheriff said he welcomed feedback from the lacrosse team.
No one was arrested or charged after the search. The sheriff said the bus driver was given a warning.
In an exclusive interview with CBS Philly Friday, Allen said he had a “cordial”…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Home – CBSNews.com…