NPR

Trial set to begin for Black soldier suing police over violent stop

A trial in federal court in Virginia is set to begin Monday for the lawsuit filed by the U.S. Army lieutenant who was pepper sprayed, struck and handcuffed by police during a traffic stop.

NORFOLK, Va. — A U.S. Army lieutenant who was pepper sprayed, struck and handcuffed by police in rural Virginia, but never arrested, will argue to a jury that he was assaulted and falsely imprisoned and that his vehicle was illegally searched.

Video of the 2020 traffic stop got millions of views the next year after Caron Nazario filed the federal lawsuit that is now being heard, highlighting fears of mistreatment among Black drivers and intensifying the scrutiny of the boundaries of reasonable, and legal, police conduct.

The episode also served as a

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