The Jamal Thompson Case is a federal court case involving a nineteen-year-old shooting victim Jamal Thompson vs L.A.P.D. officers Amir Turani, Lawerence Griffin and the city of Los Angeles. The case is currently being overseen by Judge Curtis Wilson and clerked by Kate Nguyen.
The docket number is 18-50189.
Incident[]
Five-years-prior to "DTLA", nineteen-year-old Jamal Thompson was shot and killed by L.A.P.D. police officers Amir Turani and Lawerence Griffin. Turani and Griffin mistook a fleeing Jamal grabbing his cell phone as him making a move to secure a weapon. The officers shot him seven times in the back. The EMT's were called but weren't allowed to touch Jamal for fifteen minutes upon their arrival. Turani and Griffin stated that they thought Jamal was armed and wanted to ensure that no one else was in danger of being attacked.
After Jamal's death, his mother Sandra Thompson wanted to press charges against the officers who killed her son. However, the district attorney refused to prosecute the case. Sandra than filed a complaint against the L.A.P.D. in an attempt to force the case to reach federal court. With the help of social media backing, Jamal's case eventually made its way to the courts after five-years. While the officers themselves aren't on trial, Sandra is targeting the city by suing them for wrongful death.
Originally, the case was assigned to Judge Lawerence, a progressive African-American judge. The judge suffered a heart attack and the case was reassigned to Judge Wilon. Wilson then placed Callie as the lead clerk in the case.
Throughout Series[]
Sandra speaks to the press about her son, describing him as being a good kid who didn't have any priors on his record before his death. His case was originally being handled by Judge Lawerence, who has a history of siding with the victims over the police. Judge Lawerence suffered a heart attack later in the week, and the case was handed off to conservative Judge Curtis Wilson instead. Callie was then granted the right to clerk the Jamal case.
Sandra tweeted out that Judge Wilson was now handling the case instead of Lawerence, who had a heart attack earlier in the week.
The police now refuse to hand over the prosecutor's requested 911 calls from the day of the incident, which could prove that the suspect was not described as an African-American male. Instead, Tulani and Griffin used racial profiling to single out Jamal who was walking in a predominately white neighborhood. The defenses' refusal to hand over the tapes causes a frenzy as the Thompson family is afraid that they'll destroy the tapes. The news leaked after Sandra tweeted it out and filed an emergency motion to stop the destruction of evidence.
Jamal's case is about to appear in court. While Callie begins writing the official bench memo, Malika begins marshaling support for the "Justice for Jamal" campaign. Malika uses social media to spread awareness videos and creates posters and t-shirts to support him.
In the meantime, Callie works on finishing her progressive bench memo for Judge Wilson, advising Wilson to prohibit the police from destroying the 911 tapes that might reveal whether Jamal was targeted or not on the night of his death.
The case reaches the court for the first time, with Jamal's mother Sandra in attendance alongside "Black Lives Matter" activist, Malika Williams. His case begins to spark the media's attention, with several reporters talking about the incident. Once in court, Judge Wilson states that after reviewing the plaintiff's ex parte motion he has decided to rule to deny their motion to prevent the destruction of the reported 911 calls due to lack of relevance. He also denies the defenses motion to dismiss the case, which means that they are headed to trial.
Involved Parties[]
Current[]
- Judge Curtis Wilson
- Callie Adams Foster (Lead clerk)
- Benjamin (Attending clerk)
- Jamal Thompson / Sandra Thompson (Plantiffs)
- City of Los Angeles / Amir Turani / Lawerence Griffin (Defendants)
Former[]
- Judge Lawerence (Former: emergency medical leave)
- Rebecca (Former attending clerk: relocation)
Witnesses[]
- Medical Examiner via Defense
- Medical Examiner via Prosecution
- Officer Lawrence Griffin
Notes and Trivia[]
Gallery[]
