(CHICAGO) A federal lawsuit filed Thursday claims Chicago Police officers unlawfully searched a man cleaning out his car in an Uptown neighborhood parking lot last year.
Gregory Murray, 55, claims that two officers violated his Fourth Amendment right when they unlawfully searched him and his vehicle near the Cornerstone Community Outreach Center, were he planned to volunteer.
On Oct. 25, 2014, Murray, of Elmhurst, arrived to the center before 2 p.m. He decided to clean his 2007 Chevrolet Impala in the parking lot because he showed up early, according to the lawsuit.
The two officers then approached him and his vehicle and asked “repeatedly what he was doing in that area,” before one officer searched him and the other searched his vehicle, according to the lawsuit.
The officers did not find anything during their search, and “there was no probable cause or any other legal justification to seize Murray, to search his car, or to search his person [because] Murray had not violated any city, state or federal law,” according to the lawsuit.
The 10-count lawsuit claims unreasonable seizure, false arrest, unreasonable search of a person and vehicle, failure to intervene, civil conspiracy and seeks to hold the city responsible. Murray is asking for an unspecified amount in damages.
A spokesperson for the city’s Law Department could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit Thursday evening.
