BATON ROUGE, La. (Legal Newsline) - Bodycam footage has led the attorney of a woman suing Port Allen, La., over a fatal police shooting to withdraw from the case, though his client is proceeding as her own counsel.
Joseph Long, a civil rights and personal injury lawyer, viewed the footage on April 13, then experienced "irreconcilable differences on the path forward" with client Tara Snearl, says a motion to withdraw filed that day in Baton Rouge federal court.
Snearl's lawsuit says an unknown person shot Fatrell Queen in his home in 2017, and one of two responding officers from the Port Allen Police Department shot him a second time, killing him.
Snearl asked for permission to allow a video forensics expert to review the bodycam footage to see if it had been edited, while also alleging a cover-up that includes the hiding of additional bodycam footage and related documents.
"The Court will deny this relief at this time," Judge Richard Bourgeois wrote on July 7, adding Snearl can ask again after a scheduling order is filed.
"Foremost, the record indicates that the City of Port Allen has complied with the Court's orders requiring in camera review of certain documents and videos."
Snearl, Queen's mother, and Ayanna Queen Tran, his child, sued in 2018 for survival and wrongful death based on battery or negligent killing, intentional infliction of emotional distress and fraud.
According to the complaint, Queen was shot by an unknown assailant on Nov. 2, 2017, while at home. Allegedly moments later, officer from the Port Allen Police Department and the West Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office arrived on scene and swept the location and shot Queen a second time, killing him.
Snearl alleges that officers then proceed to cover up their role in Queen's death by a series of unusual actions and explanations.
An amended petition alleges officers:
-Claimed they didn’t find Queen’s body during a sweep of the house despite bullet holes and body-cam footage showing otherwise;
-Cancelled a previous request for an ambulance at the crime scene;
-Claimed not to find Queen’s body for two hours;
-Failed to contact the West Baton Rouge Coroner’s office for 4.5 hours after Queen was killed;
-Towed his car without a believable justification;
-Selectively collected ballistics evidence from the scene while leaving behind others;
-Made a 911 call with the instruction “Don’t tell her”; and
-Had an officer's husband use power tools to extract bullet casings from Queen’s closet.