As members of Congress weigh in on the debate over racial profiling by police, for at least one new Senate staffer, it's personal.
Ivan H. Lee II, who began as staff assistant in Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-W.Va.) office in September, once won a settlement in a case where he alleged racial profiling and unlawful search after a roadside strip search in view of passing cars.
Lee came to Manchin's office after serving as a courtroom clerk in West Virginia and field organizer for President Barack Obama's 2012 campaign. He graduated from High Point University in 2009, and the alleged incident took place during his college years in 2006.
Lee, who is black, contended in a suit against the City of South Charleston, W.Va. and police that the incident began when an officer confronted him after he stopped to observe a traffic stop of a friend. Following the conversation with the officer, Lee and two passengers drove away but a police car followed them, according to filings.
An officer then pulled Lee over for alleged traffic violations and asked to search the vehicle, which Lee refused. The officer asked him to step out of the car, handcuffed him and patted him down. Officers discovered marijuana in searches of the two passengers, then returned to Lee and strip-searched him without finding any drugs.
A judge dismissed Lee's racial profiling complaint but let other allegations proceed. The case settled in 2009, according to the ACLU of West Virginia.
Protests have broken out nationwide in recent weeks after grand juries decided not to indict in two racially charged cases of deaths at the hands of police officers in New York and Missouri.
