‘You Realize You’re Under Oath?’: Mississippi Cop Who Falsely Arrested Black Woman Blatantly Lies Despite the Truth Being Captured By His Own Camera
Knowing his actions had been recorded by his own body camera, a Mississippi police officer did not think twice about perjuring himself in front of a judge to justify his unlawful arrest of a Black woman who was simply observing her brother’s arrest from her car when he arrested her on false charges. In a video posted to the police accountability YouTube channel Lackluster, Laurel Police Officer Patrick Dickerson is seen testifying before a judge with blatant lies that were proved false by his own camera. The lies led to the dismissal of charges against Jhaqulia Stevens, who had been falsely arrested in 2023 on charges of resisting arrest and failure to comply with an officer, spending four hours in jail before she was released. Jhaqulia Stevens, left, was falsely arrested by Laurel police officer Patrick Dickerson, who lied several times to the judge, his testimony contradicting video evidence from his own body camera. (Photo: City of Laurel) Last year, the Black woman sued and agreed to an undisclosed settlement within five months of filing the lawsuit. Meanwhile, the lying cop was never disciplined for committing perjury on the witness stand, which means he will likely continue to do so. White Teacher Calls Cop on Black Father After Seeing Scratch on Her Car Then Police Officer’s Response to the False Claims Sets Him Off “Do you realize you’re under oath right now?” asked attorney Matt Lawrence, who was representing Stevens. “One, yes, I realize I’m under oath,” responded Dickerson. “Two, I do not lie about nothing.” But he lied about several things, accusing Stevens of refusing his order to drive away, claiming she told him “f_ck you” as well as insisting she locked her door to prevent the cop from accessing her, and that she refused to provide her identification and that she refused to step out of the car when ordered to do so. All of that was proved false by the video from his own body camera, which can be seen in the video below. Lie After Lie The incident took place on Feb. 2, 2023, when Stevens was driving down the street and noticed her brother was being arrested. She slowed her car, and Dickerson told her to keep moving, which she did. “Go on down the road, you’re interfering,” he told her. Her brother, who was in the back seat of the patrol car, told her to “call my daddy” as she drove away. “I am,” she responded from inside the car, which the claim states was a response to the cop that she was following his order to leave. “That’s my brother.” “Hey, you want to be in jail, too?” the cop threatened. “You can’t tell me what to do,” she responded. The cop then got in his patrol car and chased her down. But in Dickerson’s fictionalized version of the exchange during the court hearing on May 15, 2023, Stevens told him, “f_ck you, it’s a public road, I can do what I want,” which still would not be illegal, as cursing out cops is protected by the First Amendment. But it was his way of painting her as an angry Black woman when the video shows he was the one who was angry at having his authority questioned. First, he insisted that her door was closed when he walked up to her, when the video shows she had opened the door and appeared willing to engage in a conversation with him. Attorney Lawrence repeatedly asked if the cop was “100 percent sure” the door was closed, and he said he was certain. Then, when she finally opened the door, he claimed she refused to step out of the car, which was another lie. “She at first wouldn’t get out of the vehicle,” Dickerson told the judge during the hearing, claiming it took her two minutes to finally step out, when it took less than 10 seconds. And the lies continued. “When I got her out of the vehicle, she pulled her arm away from me when I tried to put the handcuffs on her,” he testified, when the video shows she did no such thing. Despite the cop’s confidence, his testimony made it easy for Stevens’ attorney to get the charges dismissed. “I would move to dismiss because the totally unreliable, untruthful testimony of the officer on the stand,” Lawrence told the judge. “He seems to be willing to make up whatever he needs to justify that’s on video.” “Miss Stevens never cussed at him, she never resisted arrest, she got out of the car when he asked her to, the door was open when he approached her car. All these things are apparent in the video evidence.” “And if you read his report, there’s more embellishments and contradictions that he’s testified to, so I would ask the court to dismiss this just because there’s no grounds for the arrest, no probable cause.” Stevens filed her lawsuit on May 7, 2024, listing Dickerson as a defendant along with several other cops that were at the scene, including Tammy Myers, Devin Craven, and Amanda Gould, as well as the city of Laurel and Laurel Police Chief Tommy Cox for allowing the culture of lies to thrive within his agency. She finalized the undisclosed settlement in October 2024. The lawsuit, obtained by Atlanta Black Star, accused the defendants of unlawful seizure, false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, failure to intercede and prevent the violation of rights, and for maintaining “a custom and culture of violating the constitutional rights of others.” “The practice of manufacturing post hoc justifications and corroborations for unconstitutional actions is common in the Laurel Police Department,” the claim states. “The practice is encouraged by supervisors to create the false appearance of credibility in frivolous arrests.” In 2020, two Laurel police officers were indicted for assaulting a Black man. One of those officers had previously been charged with killing a Black woman. Both cops, Bryce Gilbert and Christopher Wade Robertson, were found guilty and sentenced to prison.
