Last night, the Baton Rouge Metro Council voted to pay $86,000 to our client, law professor Thomas Frampton, along with a promise to dismiss allegations of contempt against the professor.

The settlement followed a court order by federal judge John W. deGravelles, in which the judge found "overwhelming evidence" that the City of Baton Rouge had acted in "bad faith and in retaliation" against Professor Frampton.

Frampton is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law. In early 2021, Professor Frampton represented the Green family of Baton Rouge pro bono in a civil rights case against the City of Baton Rouge. The lawsuit addressed what another federal judge had called a “serious and wanton disregard” of the Green family’s constitutional rights by Baton Rouge Police Department officers. In May of 2021, the family settled the claims with the City.

Following the settlement, and at the Green family’s request, Prof. Frampton publicly shared body camera footage (available here) of the BRPD officers’ treatment of the Green family. On May 27, 2021, the video became a national news story: the CBS Evening news ran a piece entitled “Baton Rouge reaches $35,000 settlement with family after police strip-searched teen and entered home without warrant.

The very next day, the City of Baton Rouge went to court and asked that Frampton be found “in contempt.”

Frampton then filed suit in federal court, arguing that the City was retaliating against him for exercising his freedom of speech.

The court agreed with Frampton, concluding that "City/Parish would not have pursued this matter in the absence of its bad faith motive to retaliate."

For further information, see WAFB news coverage here.