Black North Carolina Man Sues Police After Woman Was Punched 17 Times During Arrest for Smoking Legal Hemp

A North Carolina man has filed a federal lawsuit against the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department following a violent arrest in 2023. Anthony Lee, who is Black, was arrested along with a Black woman at a bus stop for smoking a legal hemp cigarette.

According to the lawsuit, filed on July 27 by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, the officers involved had no probable cause for the arrest. Lee immediately told officers the cigarette had been legally purchased from a nearby store and was hemp rather than marijuana.

As state investigators and the department's own legal guidance warned officers for years that the appearance or odor of cannabis alone could no longer establish probable cause, hemp and marijuana remained impossible to reliably distinguish without laboratory testing. The bodycam footage reportedly shows officers punching the woman 17 times before arresting Lee.

The video quickly went viral, drawing widespread attention to the incident. Legal filings state that CMPD data indicates Black people are more likely to be stopped, detained, and arrested for marijuana possession than their white counterparts.

Statistics within the complaint show that more than 80% of misdemeanor marijuana possession arrests in Charlotte between 2016 and 2023 involved Black individuals. Furthermore, a 2021 RAND Corporation report commissioned by the City of Charlotte found that Black residents were stopped, searched and arrested at substantially higher rates than white residents.

"This case is about what happens when police recklessly and intentionally use junk science to stand in for a reasonable investigation," said Dominique Erney of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. Erney added that officers kept arresting people anyway despite knowing appearance and smell failed to establish legality.

Later prosecutors dismissed all charges against Lee and Christina Pierre after determining there was not a reasonable likelihood of success at trial, according to court filings. Litigation documents emphasize the need for institutional accountability regarding civil rights violations.

CMPD had not publicly commented on the lawsuit. Lee is seeking damages for alleged constitutional violations, false arrest and excessive force, and the lawsuit is pending in federal court.