Student athlete, who settled false arrest suit with City, racially profiled & falsely arrested for shoplifting

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Submitted by T. Forsyth (photo: 13WHAM.com) on Wed, 2016-03-02 15:30

On February 22, 2016, Raliek Redd was shopping at Macy's at The Mall At Greece Ridge when he was racially profiled by store employees and falsely arrested for shoplifting by Greece, NY police. Mr. Redd and his lawyer, Elliot Dolby-Shields, are planning to file a lawsuit claiming that Macy's employees racially profiled and then wrongfully detained Mr. Redd because they didn't believe that he could afford to buy a $100 jacket. When security refused to listen to him, after showing them the receipts of his purchases including the jacket, the Greece police arrived and falsely arrested him for shoplifting.

Mr. Redd's name may be familiar to some people as he was arrested by the Rochester Police Department on November 27, 2013, with two other Edison Technical High School student athletes, while they were waiting for a bus to take them to a basketball scrimmage at Aquinas High School. The arresting officer, Eliud Rodriguez, violated Mr. Redd's constitutional and civil rights and subjected the three teenagers to an "unconstitutional strip search" in front of multiple RPD officers and corrections officers from the Monroe County jail. The charges were dismissed on December 3, 2013 and Mr. Redd settled with the City of Rochester for an unspecified amount of money in January 2016.

According to a press release issued by his attorney, Mr. Redd was comparing two different jackets, one from Macy's and one from JC Penny's: “[He] put a jacket on hold with a Macy’s employee and went to compare prices at other stores. After purchasing a similar-looking jacket at JC Penny’s, Mr. Redd returned to Macy’s to compare the jacket he put on hold to the jacket he purchased at JC Penny’s.”

He went back to Macy's, with the jacket he bought from JC Penny's, and asked to see the Macy's jacket. The employee told him it was back on the rack. The employee escorted Mr. Redd to the rack. He took off his jacket from JC Penny's (and put it in the JC Penny's bag) and tried on the Macy's jacket.

According to the release, “After Mr. Redd put on the Macy’s jacket, he was suddenly approached by a Macy’s security guard, who detained Mr. Redd and escorted him to a back room. The security guard accused Mr. Redd of shoplifting the jacket he placed in the JC Penny’s bag and demanded that he pay a $500 fine or else be sued civilly for the money. Mr. Redd told the Macy’s security guard that he just purchased the jacket he placed in the JC Penny’s bag at the JC Penny’s in the mall and offered to show him the receipt. The Macy’s security guard ignored Mr. Redd and again demanded that he pay the $500 fine. Mr. Redd insisted that he had not stolen anything and refused to pay the fine. The Macy’s security guard then called the police.”

Without viewing any security footage and after reviewing the receipt for the JC Penny's jacket, the Greece police arrested Mr. Redd. He was escorted by officers to an ATM where he withdrew the $200 he needed to secure bail. He was then taken to the Greece police station where he was photographed and fingerprinted.

Mr. Redd is pursing a civil lawsuit against Macy's for racially profiling him, falsely accusing him of shoplifting, and having a policy that attempts to force accused shoplifters to pay a $500 fine. Also, according to the release, he is planning on filing a false arrest lawsuit against the Town of Greece and the individual officers who arrested him.