Union Files Complaint Against Lawyer Ben Crump Over His Race-Related Remarks in Teen’s Rough Arrest

A union representing Broward sheriff’s deputies filed a bar complaint Thursday against Ben Crump, the nationally known civil-rights lawyer, accusing him of bringing up a racial issue where they say none existed in a case involving the rough arrest of a Black teen.

It comes a day after IUPA Local 6020 filed a similar complaint against Crump’s legal partner, Sue-Ann Robinson, involving their representation of Delucca Rolle, who was 15 when he was forcefully detained by sheriff’s deputies in 2019.

The union called Crump’s remarks reckless — in which Crump had referred to the encounter as “outrageous brutality on an unarmed Black child.” On Thursday, Crump told the South Florida Sentinel that it’s a First Amendment issue.

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Earlier this week, Christopher Krickovich, a former sheriff’s deputy, was acquitted of battery for his encounter with Rolle, in which Krickovich slammed the Black teen’s head into the pavement and punched him in 2019. Krickovich, who was fired by the Sheriff’s Office, was the third and final deputy to resolve his criminal case in conjunction with the arrest.

Rolle was originally charged with trespassing, resisting an officer and assault on an officer, but those charges were dropped. {snip}

Crump also told a television station that charges against the officers should be upgraded to felonies. But the deputies’ union took issue with the comments, saying in a bar complaint Thursday his words were “reckless and inflammatory.”

“Not one piece of evidence or testimony in this trial ever suggested racism was involved,” the union’s complaint reads. {snip}

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And after the verdict was announced, the reaction of Sue-Ann Robinson, who works with Crump representing the teen, was: “Once again, this is a situation where the criminal justice system is failing Black people.” {snip}

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