A Tate County woman is alleging that a Senatobia police officer sexually assaulted her during an unwarranted traffic stop. A lawsuit she filed on May 21 names the City of Senatobia, Senatobia Police Chief Richard Chandler and Senatobia Police Officer Willie McNeil as defendants.
Shanterra Jackson, who is Black, says the ordeal began when a Sardis police officer followed her outside of his jurisdiction and pulled over her while her friend was driving on Aug. 25, 2023. The lawsuit says the officer did not give a reason for the stop, but drew his firearm and told Jackson and her companion to get out of the car while he called the Senatobia Police Department for backup.
Jackson’s attorney, Carlos Moore, told the Mississippi Free Press the Sardis officer likely started following her in Sardis, but pulled her over in Senatobia.
The lawsuit says Senatobia McNeil arrived at the scene, handcuffed Jackson, put her in his police cruiser and drove her into the woods without an explanation. Jackson asked what he was doing to her, and he replied, “You know for what,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit alleges that McNeil turned off his body camera, removed Jackson’s handcuffs and sexually assaulted her over his car. Jackson says in the lawsuit that she was confused during the encounter and has suffered physical, mental and emotional trauma.
Moore told the Mississippi Free Press that after McNeil assaulted her, the officer reported on the police radio that he gave her “a courtesy ride home.” Moore said Jackson never learned why the car was pulled over..
“She believes she was just targeted. She believes the officer found her attractive and wanted to sexually batter her,” the attorney told the Mississippi Free Press on May 24.
A video that Jackson recorded with her phone and that Moore shared with the Mississippi Free Press shows an officer arresting the man she was riding with while a second officer walks over to her.
“Turn around,” says the officer, who Moore identified as McNeil. After Jackson asks what she did, the officer in the video responds, “He says he wants to detain you,” referring to the officer from Sardis. At the end of the recording, the officer repeatedly tells her to “drop the phone” and the recording ends.
The Senatobia Police Department did not respond to a request for an interview from the Mississippi Free Press. But in a May 23 press release, the department said that the allegations in the lawsuit are “blatantly false.”
“The City of Senatobia and Chief Richard Chandler look forward to responding to Attorney Moore’s allegations in more detail through the proper legal channels,” the press release said.
Senatobia PD ‘Out of Control,’ Moore Says
Willie McNeil improperly arrested Shanterra Jackson, violated the Fourth Amendment by using excessive force and “inflicted extreme physical pain and inhumane torture upon Plaintiff by forcefully sexually assaulting her,” the lawsuit says.
It also claims that Police Chief Richard Chandler failed to properly train and supervise McNeil and that the chief violated the 14th Amendment. It says the City of Senatobia is “liable for the negligence of its employee.”
Jackson is asking for $10 million if the court settles the lawsuit in her favor. Attorney Carlos Moore said they wanted to prosecute McNeil criminally for sexual battery.
“They’re just out of control,” Moore told the Mississippi Free Press of the Senatobia Police Department.
Jackson told Moore that SPD had fired McNeil, but the Mississippi Free Press was not able to verify his employment.
Senatobia PD Faced Other Recent Allegations
Senatobia police officers arrested Quantavious Eason, a 10-year-old boy, after they saw him urinating in a public parking lot beside his mother’s car while she was inside an attorney’s office on Aug. 10, 2023. His mother said officers put him in a police car, drove him to jail and put him in a cell.
After the arrest, Tate County Youth Court Judge Rusty Harlow sentenced the child to three months probation and told him to write a two-page book report on Kobe Bryant.
But the boy’s mother refused to make her son fulfill the probation requests. Harlow held a hearing on Feb. 5 and agreed with her, dismissing a Tate County Youth Court petition that said her son needed placing under supervision
The officers arrested Eason about two weeks before the day Shanterra Jackson’s lawsuit alleges that a Senatobia officer sexually assaulted her.
“I believe we’re going to have to report them to the Department of Justice in the Civil Rights division to have a patterns and practices investigation of the whole department and get that out on the radar like Rankin County,” Carlos Moore said, referring to Rankin County’s “goon squad.”