An Indianapolis Metro Police Officer has filed a lawsuit against the National Football League over a campaign that implied he criminally killed a Black man in May 2020.
Updated: 7:20 PM EDT June 14, 2021
INDIANAPOLIS A 31-year-old man was arrested at the same spot where an IMPD officer killed Dreasjon Reed last year.
Officers arrested Joshua Griffin at 62nd Street and Michigan Road on Indy s northwest side around 1 p.m. Saturday. It s the same location where Reed died after an exchange of gunfire with an officer last year.
IMPD first described Griffin as Reed s brother, but Griffin told 13News they are cousins.
According to an incident report filed by IMPD Officer Jalen Christian-Moss, officers confiscated a white powder substance described as cocaine. The report indicates it was under 5 grams, but classified the crime as a felony. The officers reportedly also confiscated drug paraphernalia, which is a misdemeanor.
The lawsuit says, “Despite a highly-publicized investigation and other information that clearly exculpated Mercer of all wrongdoing, all of which was publicly available and was in fact possessed by and known to one of the National Football League’s teams, the Indianapolis Colts, the NFLE (NFL Enterprises ) published several online statements accusing Mercer of police misconduct.”
The NFL’s Say Their Stories campaign included victims of police misconduct as part of a push for social justice in 2020.
“The NFLE’s Publications were a substantial factor in causing public hatred and scorn to perpetuate against Mercer,” the lawsuit says.
It also says the social media posts diminished Mercer’s standing in the community and denigrated his fitness to be a police officer.
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The Indianapolis police officer who shot and killed Dreasjon Reed last year is suing the National Football League over material published online that associated Reed with other civil rights figures killed by police.
IMPD officer De Joure Mercer filed the complaint Monday in federal Southern District of Indiana court. It targets website posts and video produced by the NFL that highlight Reed and other figures in a campaign intended to honor victims of systemic racism, victims of police misconduct, and social justice heroes.
That language is problematic, according to Mercer s lawyers. The (v)ideo gives rise to the inference, implication, and imputation that Mercer committed occupational misconduct and even criminal acts during the May 6 (e)ncounter with Reed, similar to that which were inflicted upon George Floyd, Mercer s lawyers write in the complaint. This inference, implication, and imputation is false because Mercer committed no such acts.