Attorneys for UNC-Chapel Hill law student and Charlotte activist Jamie Marsicano have filed a lawsuit against the city of Charlotte and Maj. Brad Koch of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, accusing Koch of making defamatory statements and sharing details of an expunged charge with prosecutors in Georgia following Marsicano's arrest this year near a 'Cop City' protest in Atlanta.
The 25-page lawsuit filed Wednesday in Mecklenburg County Superior Court alleges Koch improperly shared information about Marsicano's arrests in Charlotte during the 2020 George Floyd protests with prosecutors in Dekalb County. The prosecutors were seeking information about Marsicano's criminal record ahead of a March 2023 bond hearing.
Marsicano was charged twice in 2020 with assaulting a government official — charges that lawyer Tim Emry said have since been dismissed and expunged from government records.
The lawsuit alleges that Koch discussed the charges with the Georgia prosecutor, and said Marsicano had "a reputation for violent encounters with police," was "a known anarchist" who had funded anarchist programs, and was "one million percent likely" to commit future felonies. The lawsuit says those statements were part of the reason prosecutors in Georgia sought to deny Marsicano bond.
In a statement unusual in its length and specificity posted to Twitter, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department responded to the allegations by citing another of Marsicano's charges from the 2020 protests — for resisting a public officer — and said while that charge had been dismissed, it had not been expunged and remained in the court record.
Please see response from CMPD regarding Marsicano Inquiry pic.twitter.com/dXE5hxxCuu
— CMPD News (@CMPD) August 8, 2023
In addition, the statement said, "an expungement order does not prohibit an officer from speaking with another law enforcement agency about that officer's independent recollection of the incident," and that Koch "did not send a copy of CMPD's incident report nor the court filings."
A spokesperson for the city of Charlotte, which is also a named defendant in the lawsuit, declined to comment Wednesday.
Marsicano faced multiple charges from the 2020 protests
Marsicano, who uses they/them and she/her pronouns, was among a core group of organizers in the Charlotte Uprising activist group. The group led many protests and marches in uptown Charlotte following the 2020 police killing of George Floyd.
During the protests in May and June 2020, Marsicano was arrested four times on six misdemeanor charges, according to police records, court records and news releases.
Two incidents involved then-Capt. Brad Koch. In the first, on June 7, Marsicano was among two people arrested after police said Koch was shoved while walking with protesters. Marsicano was charged with misdemeanor assault on a government official.
The following day, Marsicano was again involved in an altercation with Koch outside the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center after an unidentified protester shoved Koch. The officer tackled the protester into a patch of grass while Marsicano and others tried to drag the protester away, according to video footage of the scuffle.
Marsicano was again charged with misdemeanor assault on a government official, resisting a public officer and public disturbance.
Later, Marsicano faced charges of impeding traffic and disorderly conduct on June 10, and failure to disperse on June 18.
All charges against Marsicano were dismissed by the Mecklenburg County district attorney's office, which dropped many charges against the 2020 Charlotte protesters amid an unprecedented backlog of cases that developed during a COVID-19 partial court shutdown.
A review of courthouse records by WFAE on Aug. 9, 2023, showed no results for either of Marsicano's charges of assault on a government official. Records were found for other charges Marsicano faced, including resisting a public officer and disorderly conduct.
Lawsuit says arrest details should not have been shared
The lawsuit says Koch should not have relayed information about Mariscano's 2020 dismissed and expunged charges to an assistant district attorney in Dekalb County, Georgia, who called Koch after Mariscano was arrested in March near the site of a proposed police and fire training center in Atlanta that activists have dubbed "Cop City."
Police in Atlanta said a group of "violent agitators" threw rocks, bricks, Molotov cocktails and fireworks at officers and destroyed construction equipment in the March 5 incident.
Marsicano and 22 others were charged with felony domestic terrorism. Marsicano's attorneys say she was attending a music festival and was not involved in the violence.
The lawsuit says Georgia prosecutors used Koch's statements in a March 23 bond hearing as part of their basis to oppose any bond for Marsicano. The judge ultimately set Marsicano's bond at $25,000, took away Mariscano's passport and mandated Marsicano wear an ankle monitor.
As a result, the lawsuit says, Marsicano was unable to attend a fall semester study abroad program in Spain, and UNC-Chapel Hill banned her from campus, although she's been allowed to continue taking courses remotely.
The suit says Marsicano has suffered significant distress and that the bond conditions have been especially damaging to a law student and Marsicano's future employment as an attorney. The suit seeks unspecified damages and a trial by jury.
Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse Wednesday, Marsicano characterized Koch's alleged actions as harrassment, and said she'd been diagnosed with PTSD since her release from jail. She also included a quote from Beyonce.
"When the DA finally dismissed the charges and the charges were expunged, I thought, okay, this trauma from CMPD, I can put it behind me and I can move on with my life, but three years later — three years later — this man is still harassing me," Marsicano said.
"No matter how hard they try or how maliciously they target me and other people like me for our perceived political views, Brad Koch, CMPD, you will never break my soul."
