‘I Was Kicked Out’: Black Female Officer Punished After Calling Out Missing Video Evidence of Two White Maryland Cops Assaulting an African-American Driver, Lawsuit Says

A former Black police officer in Prince George’s County, Maryland, who claims she was retaliated against and forced to resign after pressing for missing video evidence of excessive force by two white police officers is suing the police and an investigator involved in her termination for racial discrimination. In her civil rights lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland on Monday, former Internal Affairs officer Lt. Sonya Zollicoffer claims she was investigating allegations made by a Black motorist of excessive force against two Prince George’s County police officers related to a traffic stop in October 2017 when she discovered that seven minutes of dashcam video capturing the alleged assault were missing from the tape. Former Internal Affairs officer Lt. Sonya Zollicoffer fighting to restore her reputation after being forced out for reporting misconduct. (Credit: NBC Washington Screengrab) “Missing evidence,” she said. “There was a tape missing from a traffic stop, which I was investigating.” At the time she was also pursuing a racial discrimination complaint with the police Internal Affairs department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that African-American officers were receiving harsher punishment for disciplinary matters than white officers. That eventually led to a...