Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 19, 1992 TAG: 9203190178
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: VICTORIA RATCLIFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, Albert Davis Sr. claimed that while he was at a voting precinct in November 1990, Sgt. Jason Miles forced Davis from a voting line while "loudly and vociferously" calling him a convicted felon who had no right to vote.
Davis had asked for $210,000 in damages.
Under law, convicted felons lose their voting rights. But Davis has no felony criminal record and had been issued a voting-rights card, according to his attorney, William Yongue.
Davis charged that Miles' behavior was racially motivated. Davis is black; Miles is white.
Although Davis went ahead and voted at the Fairlawn Fire Department precinct after the confrontation, he claimed that Miles defamed his character and violated his constitutional rights.
Davis said in the suit that he was intimidated by Miles because he was the only black person at the voting precinct and that he was unjustifiably questioned and humiliated.
Davis "felt that he had been transported back into a time when an African-American could lose his life over the right to vote," according to the suit.
But in his opinion, Judge Jackson Kiser ruled that Davis had failed to show that his constitutional right to vote had been violated because he did, in fact, vote.
Additionally, Kiser ruled, Miles' status as a police officer was alone not sufficient to find that he was acting in his authority as a police officer. At the time of the incident, Miles was off duty, in civilian clothes, unarmed and had driven to the polling place in his personal car, Kiser wrote.
Davis's knowledge that Miles was a police officer was not enough to satisfy the claim that Miles was acting under "color of law," Kiser wrote.
by CNB