16 were filed by minorities. Every single complaint had been investigated internally and either dismissed or resulted in nothing more than a written warning that went into his file and was ignored. Chen dug deeper and pulled Patterson’s arrest records for the past 7 years. She found that 44% of his arrests of black suspects were later dismissed due to lack of evidence, procedural violations, or prosecutorial discretion. The dismissal rate for his arrests of white suspects was 9%.
The pattern was undeniable and had been documented for nearly a decade, but the police department had never taken meaningful action to stop him. Chen also discovered that Patricia Patterson had called the police on black people in her neighborhood seven times over the past 4 years. She’d reported a black man acting suspicious while jogging in the park. He was a cardiologist who lived two blocks away. She’d called about a black family having a barbecue in a public recreation area, claiming they were being too loud.
No other neighbors had complained. She’d reported a black teenager walking through her neighborhood. He was delivering newspapers. None of her calls had ever resulted in actual crimes being discovered because there were no crimes, just Patricia’s racism seeing threats where none existed. The investigation also revealed something that made the case even more explosive.
Ryan Mitchell, a black attorney who lived in the same affluent neighborhood as the Pattersons, came forward after seeing the viral video. He told Chen that Officer Patterson had stopped him six times over two years while he was driving through his own neighborhood, demanding to know where he was going and what he was doing there. Mitchell had filed three formal complaints with the police department. All three were dismissed as unsubstantiated. Chen tracked down four other people who had been racially profiled by Officer Patterson.
A black doctor detained while walking to her car after her hospital shift because Patterson decided she looked suspicious in the parking garage. A Hispanic business owner stopped and questioned while opening his own restaurant early in the morning because Patterson assumed he was breaking in. A black professor stopped while jogging because Patterson thought he was running from something. Every single one of them had been treated like criminals for the offense of existing while not white. The state attorney general reviewed all the evidence Chen had compiled and announced that criminal charges would be filed against Officer Dennis Patterson.
The charges were serious and specific: false arrest, official misconduct, deprivation of rights under color of law, and filing a false police report. Combined, Patterson faced up to 12 years in prison if convicted on all counts. Chen also built the civil case with devastating precision. She calculated damages based on the humiliation Bennett suffered, the harm to her business reputation, the emotional distress of being handcuffed and arrested in front of her own employees and customers, and the need for punitive damages large enough to send a message that this behavior would not be tolerated. She filed a federal civil rights lawsuit demanding $680,000 from Officer Patterson, Patricia Patterson, and the police department.
