Judge Sues UCLA Police for Racial Profiling, Excessive Force

Demanding $10 million over treatment at traffic stop

An African American judge has filed a $10-million claim alleging excessive force and racial profiling by UCLA's campus police when he was handcuffed and put into a police cruiser after being stopped last fall for not wearing a seat belt.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Cunningham III, a former police commission president, alleges in the claim filed Jan. 16 that two UCLA Police Department officers, Kevin Dodd and James Kim, used unreasonable force and that their motivation was racial profiling.

The judge alleges the officers stopped him on Nov. 23 in Westwood seconds after he left an LA Fitness gym, shoved him against his car, handcuffed him and locked him in the back seat of a police cruiser until a black sergeant arrived.

He alleges the only explanation for the conduct was "his African American race," as he did not pose a threat and was not even near university property.