A federal judge ruled this week that a lawsuit filed by a Black man in Paterson, New Jersey, alleging that police officers illegally searched, beat, and sexually assaulted him in 2022 can proceed.

U.S. District Judge Jamel K. Semper ruled on Sept. 22 that some of the claims of Benjamin Jackson have legal merit, while dismissing others.

In his lawsuit filed in November 2024 (and obtained by Atlanta Black Star) Jackson, 35, alleges that four undercover Paterson Police Department officers in plainclothes stopped him without reasonable suspicion around 8 p.m. on Nov. 6, 2022 as he stepped out of an SUV wearing a black fanny pack.

One of the officers, Muhammed Dombayci, saw Jackson “notice” their unmarked vehicle, become “startled” and widen his eyes while he “abruptly slowed down his pace,”

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