The first of the “BRAVE Cave” lawsuits to reach a jury was heard in a federal courtroom this week, with an eight-person jury siding with former Baton Rouge police officer Troy Lawrence Jr. after he was accused in a civil suit of using excessive force during a search at the infamous warehouse facility.
Jeremy Lee’s civil case was the first to be filed against the city-parish and specific officers, whom Lee accused of strip-searching and beating him at an off-site department facility referred to as the BRAVE Cave, named after a now-defunct youth gun-violence prevention program.
Lee, who was 22 at the time, specifically accused Lawrence of kicking him twice with steel-toed boots during a search at the facility in January 2023, leading to a broken rib. He claims in his lawsuit that he was “left so badly beaten that the local jail refused to admit him until he was treated by a nearby hospital.”…