They documented 2020's Providence riot. Then came a police assault, arrest, lawsuit says.

PROVIDENCE – A former East Providence couple alleges they were left homeless, battered and traumatized by the husband’s wrongful arrest and beating during the protests in downtown Providence in June 2020 sparked by the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

Darryl Jordan and his common-law wife, Shevon L. Young, sued Providence, its police commanders and several unidentified officers in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, alleging violation of their civil rights during Jordan’s alleged illegal arrest June 2, 2020 as they tried to document the unrest taking place. The couple, who are Black, accuse officers of subjecting them to racial profiling, excessive force, assault and battery, and malicious prosecution, among other claims.

And they fault command staff – namely former Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Paré, former Providence Police Chief Hugh T. Clements Jr., and current Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez – for failing to properly supervise, discipline and train police officers about citizens’ rights to peaceably assemble and exercise their First Amendment rights in public spaces such as streets, sidewalks and parks without police interference, despite previous legal challenges.

Young and Jordan are asking the court to declare that Providence police, and as such the city, violated their rights to freedom of speech and equal protection under the state and federal Constitutions, as well their right to be free from unreasonable seizures. They are seeking unspecified damages.

The Providence Police Department declined to comment through a spokeswoman; the city has not yet responded in U.S. District Court.

More from courts: He lost an eye during 2020 George Floyd protest in Providence. He's suing Providence police.

June 2020 rally turns violent as crowd swells outside Providence Place mall

The federal lawsuit marks three years since protests sparked by the killing of Floyd disintegrated into the looting of Providence Place mall and downtown businesses and a police cruiser being set ablaze – all widely streamed on social media.

Jordan and Young’s lawsuit recalls the protests as being triggered, in part, by a social media post by a white youth in Warwick who called for people to converge at the Providence Place mall at midnight. The posting circulated heavily in the Black, Latino and Southeast Asian communities, drawing hundreds to the scene.

As the crowd grew, Providence police deployed dozens of officers, who, with state troopers, lined the sidewalk outside the mall and blocked a portion of Francis Street. Dozens of people broke into the mall, some of whom were pursued and arrested.

The lawsuit accuses officers of growing increasingly aggressive and placing people under arrest as they gathered on the sidewalks and green spaces. Officers deployed OC spray, a chemical weapon whose use is banned under the Geneva Convention, from military-style launchers.

“Many protesters, particularly Black and brown youth, engaged in passionate commentaries addressed toward the officers, denouncing the violence, racism and lack of accountability that led to the murder of George Floyd and other Black people across the country,” the couple’s lawyer, Shannah Kurland, wrote. A “small number” of people threw plastic water bottles and small stones, the suit said.

According to police, eight to 10 officers were pelted with and injured by bricks as gatherers hurled profanities.

More from the protest: 65 arrested, 8 to 10 police injured in Providence riot

Jordan and Young head to Providence to conduct 'community journalism project'

Jordan and Young, as artists, musicians, community workers and parents, said they left on foot from East Providence walking toward Providence out of concern for the young protesters as tensions appeared to rise on social media. They intended to engage in a “critical community journalism project” that captured the events and, when possible, the voices of young Black and brown people “most deeply affected by police violence” who were at the center of the protests, they said.

The couple made their way to Kennedy Plaza, where they interviewed a 25-year-old mother of two. Moments later, they said they witnessed a phalanx of 20 officers in riot gear with clubs and plastic shields amass in front of City Hall and jog toward Burnside Park.

They said they watched “in horror” as officers ran after a youth and tackled him; shots rang out as police fired what appeared to be rubber bullets on Dorrance Street.

Attorney General Peter F. Neronha’s office ruled that the actions of the officer who fired a less-lethal bullet that took out a man’s eye were justified and reasonable. The same report says the police were pursuing the youth after he and others broke into the Subway shop.

Tense moments leading up to the arrest: 'I’m not doing anything wrong!'

Jordan and Young crossed Exchange Terrace followed by a group of police officers they had been trying to avoid. Young filmed as a young man taunted police. She urged him not to antagonize the officers in the already tense situation.

The officers began to march and then jog toward the young man, picking up speed as they approached.

Young can be heard on the video calling out, “I’m not doing anything wrong!” as the officers ran past her and headed toward Jordan and tackled him, though he remained motionless and silent, the suit said. Jordan curled into a fetal position to protect himself from the clubs the officers wielded.

Four unidentified officers struck Jordan with blows, including one to his forehead that left him unable to hear or see clearly, according to the suit. They continued to beat and kick him, with one pressing his knee into his back, making it difficult for him to breathe.

Young said she tried to shield Jordan but was shoved away by an officer with a shield – all while a supervisor looked on.

“There was no apparent explanation for why defendants tackled and beat Mr. Jordan, other than the fact that Plaintiff Jordan, who was standing still on the edge of the sidewalk, was easier to catch than the younger Black man who had been taunting them and had a running start,” the suit states.

Officers hoisted Jordan, disoriented and in pain, to his feet, his head bleeding ”profusely” as two knots began to form, according to the complaint.

Jordan and “scores” of other arrestees were taken to Providence police headquarters, where he says he was not provided with medical treatment.

The couple charge that the city was on notice well before June 1, 2020, as “to its pattern and practice of arresting and using force against Black people at disproportionate rates far in excess of Defendant City’s Black population.”

The lawsuit cites internal police reports on civilian complaints indicating that 39% of recorded use-of-force incidents were against Black people as far back as 2015, despite the fact that Providence’s population at the time was about 13% Black. Similar patterns continued in subsequent years, the suit says.

What was Jordan charged with?

Jordan and 64 other people were brought to District Court the next morning, where he was charged with disorderly conduct based on the “patently false accusation” that he had been in the middle of the street blocking traffic, according to the suit. He was one of 31 people facing a similar charge.

At age 43, Jordan was the oldest of those arrestees, 27 of whom were under 24 years old and 17 of whom were Black. All faced a generalized accounting of the allegations that lacked specific fact patterns.

District Court Magistrate J. Patrick O’Neill set bail at $1,000 with surety, meaning $100, as he did with many of the other people who were arrested – a rare occurrence for a “victimless misdemeanor” charge, Kurland wrote.

Many of those arrested were brought to the Adult Correctional Institutions. There, Jordan said he was in a group ”forced” to strip and shower in front of others.

Young went to the Intake Service Center to post bail around 5:30 p.m. and was turned away around 7 p.m. when prison staff announced they were closing the payment window due to the 7 p.m. curfew that was in place.

As a result, Jordan was not released until the following day.

The prosecution: Charge dismissed in exchange for a 'contribution'

According to the complaint, Jordan returned to District Court seven times before the prosecutor dismissed the charge in exchange for him paying a $250 “contribution” to the state’s victims of crime indemnification fund.

“Given that [city] had no particularized allegations of criminal activity against Mr. Jordan, much less evidence of illegal conduct, defendant’s insistence on a quid-pro-quo before dismissing the charge against Mr. Jordan was a pathetically transparent attempt to curtail Plaintiff’s ability to defend his constitutional rights in a civil context,” the lawsuit said.

The aftermath: Battered and homeless amid pandemic

The couple returned home to find their belongings in the parking lot of the apartment building they were living at in exchange for labor. The “illegal eviction" by their landlord, Rich Watrous, came in “direct response” to Jordan’s “illegal” arrest, they said. (Watrous declined to comment.)

In the ensuing months — in the thick of the COVID pandemic — they stayed on couches, outside or rented hotel rooms “borrowing and begging” from the community to keep a roof over their heads, they said.

The injury, too, left Jordan “severely” concussed with a traumatic brain injury, resulting in lasting headaches, memory impairment, poor concentration and photosensitivity, the suit says.

Their lives disrupted, the couple moved to Cincinnati to stay with family and “rebuild their emotional and financial well-being.”

How many other people were arrested during the protest?

About 65 people faced charges related to the demonstration, ranging from assault to breaking and entering, resisting arrest and receiving stolen goods. Some were accused of looting the mall and others were alleged to have stolen candy and cigarettes.

The attorney general’s office, which prosecuted many of the cases emanating from the protests, did not provide an accounting for the outcome of the cases by press time Friday.

A cursory review of the cases shows that many people admitted to the offenses by pleading no contest.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: 2020 Providence riot arrest left man with brain injury, lawsuit claims