Tuskegee head basketball coach Benjay Taylor has announced that he will file a lawsuit after he was handcuffed on the court following a Jan. 30 away game at Morehouse College.
According to the Idaho Statesman, Morehouse, as well as campus police officers R. Clark and M. Robertson, are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
Tuskegee's account of the situation, which saw Taylor handcuffed and escorted off the court in the moments following the game against Morehouse, has been that Taylor was trying to deescalate a tense situation taking place during the postgame handshake.
Videos that circulated widely on social media after that game showed Taylor being placed in handcuffs after he contested members of the Morehouse football team joining the basketball team in the postgame handshake line.
Tuskegee has maintained that Taylor was handcuffed after asking an officer to enforce conference-mandated security procedures.
The Statesman reported that Taylor's legal team includes civil rights attorneys Harry Daniels and John Burris, along with attorneys Gerald Griggs and Gregory Reynald Williams.
The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference has already imposed an undisclosed fine on Morehouse College after determining the school failed to meet mandatory safety protocols following the game, when Taylor was handcuffed by law enforcement.
"In accordance with SIAC Policy 1.9 (Security), the conference determined that Morehouse College did not satisfy the required security standards for a host institution, specifically as it relates to crowd control and ensuring the safe entry and exit of visiting teams and game participants," the conference said in a statement, as reported by Walter Hudson of The EDU Ledger.
