SUPD officers investigated

A dispute over parking landed two female students in East Baton Rouge Parish Prison for over four hours and resulted in three Southern University police officers and a traffic officer being placed under investigation by Louisiana State Police.
Traffic control officer Easter Sterling, Lt. James Hulbert, Sgt. Maurice Allen, and Officer Byron Cage are being investigated on charges that they allegedly used excessive force and improper conduct during the arrest of Danielle McGee and Tandi Tyler.
McGee, a sophomore secondary education major from Milwaukee, Wis., and Tyler, a junior elementary education major from Des Moines, Iowa said the altercation occurred Wednesday, October 16 when they were walking to their car parked at A.W. Mumford Stadium.
According to McGee, Sterling was towing a car parked on a row that was illegally made.
“We didn’t know that the row wasn’t actually a row for parking,” said McGee. “We simply parked next to the other cars.”
McGee and Tyler said their car was eight cars down from the car that was being towed.
“Officer Sterling came down to our car and stood in front of it and said that we were going to be towed and instructed us to get out of the car,” said McGee.
The students refused to exit the vehicle and Sterling called SUPD for back up.
According to McGee and Tyler, Sterling pulled her car in front of theirs blocking them in. Then Sgt. Allen opened the back door and put Tyler in a headlock and handcuffed her as she attempted to put on her seat belt.
“He didn’t even read us our rights,” said McGee. “When the officer asked me to step out of the car he just handcuffed me.”
The students were taken to William Pass Police Station where they were both charged with resisting arrest, assault to an officer, attempted flight from an officer, and disturbing the peace.
“The officer that arrested me wasn’t the officer who filled out my paperwork,” said McGee. “The officer who did copied the same things that were documented on Tandi’s paperwork.”
McGee also said she asked officers at the station on several occasions to explain to her the reason why she had been arrested, but instead the officer called her “stupid” and told her that she “wasn’t going to finish school.”
The students were later transported to East Baton Rouge Parish Prison where McGee spent four hours and Tyler spent eight hours.
“It was humiliating,” said McGee. “We had to change into the orange jail clothing.”
Charges have been dropped against McGee, however they are still pending on Tyler.
SUPD Chief Dale Flowers said that he stands behind his officers 100 percent, but if their investigation proves that they are guilty, necessary action will take place.
“I turned the investigation over to the state police so that it wouldn’t look like we were trying to hide anything,” said Flowers.
All parties are expecting to receive results from the investigation in two to three weeks.