Mississippi Police Arrested a 10-Year-Old for Peeing Behind His Mom's Car. Now, the Family Is Suing
Third-grader Quantavious Eason was arrested and charged as a "child in need of services" after being caught peeing behind his mother's car.
After her 10-year-old son was sentenced to "adult" probation for public urination last year, LaTonya Eason has filed a lawsuit against the police officers who arrested her son, claiming that their actions amounted to excessive force and inflicted "physical and psychological injury" on her son.
In August 2023, LaTonya Eason attended a meeting at a Senatobia, Mississippi, law office, leaving her two children, including 10-year-old Quantavious, in her parked car. According to the complaint, Quantavious told his sister that he needed to use the bathroom, but she pointed out that a sign on the door of the law offices stated that there was no public restroom.
The third-grader then decided to urinate outside, shielding himself with one of the car's doors. According to the suit, A Senatobia police officer witnessed this and interrupted LaTonya's meeting to inform her.
"I was like 'Son, why did you do that?…You knew better.'" LaTonya told WRAL, a local news station, in August 2023, adding that the officer told her that "since you handled it like a mom, then he can just get back in the car."
LaTonya thought that was the end of the incident. However, Officer Zachary Jenkins soon arrived, accompanied by four more police officers. Jenkins insisted that Quantavious be arrested and taken to jail.
Quantavious was arrested, put in a police cruiser, and taken to a local jail, where he was kept in a cell for around an hour. He was charged in youth court with "child in need of services." In December, Quantavious was sentenced to three month's probation. The terms of his probation included that he submit to drug tests at his probation officer's discretion, a ban on the boy possessing any weapons, and a strict 8 p.m. curfew. Quantavious would also have to write a two-page report on the late basketball player Kobe Bryant.
However, Quantavious' family refused to sign the probation agreement.
"It's just a regular probation. I thought it was something informed for a juvenile. But it's the same terms an adult criminal would have," Carlos Moore, the family's attorney, told the Associated Press at the time. "We cannot in good conscience accept a probation agreement that treats a 10-year-old child as a criminal."
While Moore announced that the probation requirements had been dropped earlier this month, the family has also decided to sue the officers and the City of Senatobia, claiming that they "maliciously prosecuted a ten-year-old minor child," and "knew or should have known that these charges were filed because of personal animosity, bias, and lack of reason outside the interests of justice."
"Because of this, [Quantavious], a minor, cannot enjoy life as a normal child," the complaint states, adding that he "is treated as an adult criminal. Instead of enjoying activities a child would enjoy, his youth is tainted by malicious prosecution."
