KC officers who wrongfully arrested Black teen ordered to face civil rights lawsuit

A federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday that two Kansas City police officers being sued for wrongfully arresting a Black teen in 2016 must stand trial in a civil rights lawsuit.

The mother of Tyree Bell sued the police department in 2017 accusing the police department and officers Jonathan Munyan and Peter Neukirch of unlawful arrest, negligent training and supervision, and deprivation of her son’s constitutional rights.

Bell was detained in a juvenile jail for three weeks based on the officers’ claim that he matched the description of one of three Black teenagers showing off a firearm at 91st Street and Marsh Avenue on June 8, 2016.

U.S. District Judge Greg Kays dismissed the mother’s lawsuit in 2019. Kays ruled the officers were entitled to “qualified immunity,” which protects government officials from being sued unless there is a clear violation of constitutional rights. In a 2 to 1 ruling on Wednesday, the appeals court overturned Kays’ decision.

On appeal, Bell’s attorney argued that the district court erred in granting qualified immunity of the officers. Bell maintained the officers detained him without probable cause and no reasonable officer could have believed that probable cause existed.

“Black lives matter,” said Arthur Benson, an attorney for Bell. “Three weeks of an innocent child’s life stolen and jailed matter. When the Kansas City Police Department does not train its mostly white officers that all Blacks do not look alike it matters.”

Benson continued: “When the Department does not train its officers that cross-race identifications are often mis-identifications resulting in innocent people of color being wrongfully arrested, it matters. Maybe what Mr. Bell suffered can result in long-need police officer training and then innocence can matter.”

Both officers remained employed by the police department. Munyan is assigned to the patrol bureau/special operations division and Neukirch works in the investigations Bureau/violent crimes division, according to Sgt. Jacob Becchina, police spokesman.

Becchina declined to further comment because the case remains pending, “which this matter is, to ensure fairness for all sides in the matter.”

According to court documents, police responded to a report of three black teenagers showing a firearm to a group of girls. The caller said teen were hugging the girls, and playing with the weapons. The caller said he was concerned that someone could get hurt. He described one of the male teens as having dreadlocks.

The teens fled as the officers spotted them nearby. Officers caught two teens, but dash cam footage shows one suspect discarding the gun before he outran authorities.

Less than 10 minutes later and more than a mile away, another officer found then-15-year-old Bell walking down 87th Street.

Bell resembled the fleeing teen — both Black and thin with dreadlocks and wearing white T-shirts. Bell, however, was 6 feet 3 inches (5 inches taller than the height Munyan originally radioed in to surrounding officers), wore sneakers and blue shorts with a thick white stripe, and showed no signs of having run a sub-seven-minute mile in near 90 degree heat.

Police arrested Bell, despite the teen’s shoes and shorts not matching the description dispatchers gave of the suspect, the lawsuit said.

Bell said he cooperated with the officer because he did nothing wrong.

But the teen spent three weeks in the Jackson County Juvenile Detention Center. The lawsuit alleges police didn’t immediately review the dash cam footage that would’ve exonerated Bell.

The teen repeatedly professed his innocence.

Bell was released after a detective viewed dashcam footage and determined that he was not the teenager who had fled.

The officers argued in court documents that they are trained at the police academy “that during foot pursuits, suspects will often wear more than one shirt, pants, or pair of socks for the purpose of changing their appearance.”

But the officers presented no evidence of training or experience to suggest “the teens showing off a gun to teenage girls on a warm afternoon in June are likely to wear multiple pairs of shorts and socks, just in case they end up in a foot chase with police,” Benson said in court documents.

In his ruling, Steven M. Colloton wrote: “One hopes that obvious constitutional violations are rare, but it is not evident why rarity would be part of the legal standard; frequency seems to be an empirical question that depends on the conduct of police officers.

“For me, it is likely the first case in seventeen years to meet the standard,” he said.