CHARLOTTE, N.C. (July 23, 2026) — Anthony Lee was sitting at a bus stop in Charlotte after working a shift at Bojangles, smoking a hemp cigarette he had legally purchased at a store, when Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) officers approached him and placed him under arrest.
He had done nothing wrong.
Today, Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) filed a lawsuit on Lee’s behalf in the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina against CMPD officers and the City of Charlotte. It alleges his arrest was unlawful and part of a long-standing pattern of unconstitutional policing the city knew about and did nothing to stop.
The lawsuit centers on what CMPD’s own lawyers have recognized to be “junk science:” using the mere sight or smell of supposed marijuana as the sole basis for probable cause to arrest someone. In 2019, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) issued a memorandum that explained how law enforcement could not distinguish lawful hemp from marijuana by sight or smell alone. The SBI’s memo was widely circulated to law enforcement agencies across the state, including CMPD. In 2021, CMPD’s legal counsel directed its officers in writing that they “will need additional evidence beyond the sight or smell of marijuana to establish probable cause.”
CMPD kept making arrests based only on the alleged sight or smell of marijuana anyway.
When officers approached Lee and Christina Pierre on Nov. 13, 2023, Lee immediately and clearly told them he was smoking legally purchased hemp. “This is stuff from the store,” he said, according to the lawsuit. “It’s sold in the store.”
The officers did not ask a single follow-up question. Instead, within seconds, one of the officers grabbed Lee’s arms and placed him in handcuffs. Another officer then grabbed Pierre, ultimately slamming her to the ground, and then a third officer, who arrived a short time later, hit her with seven knee strikes and ten hammer fists.
All charges against Lee and Pierre were voluntarily dismissed after the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office stated it did not have “a reasonable likelihood of success at any potential trial.”
The arrest of Lee and Pierre did not occur in a vacuum. Both Lee and Pierre are Black. A 2021 RAND Corporation report commissioned by the City of Charlotte found that Black residents were stopped, searched, and arrested by CMPD at dramatically higher rates than white residents. In the specific context of arresting people for the single offense of misdemeanor possession of marijuana, the city’s own data between 2016 and 2023 show that over 80% of people arrested for misdemeanor marijuana possession alone were Black.
“This case is about what happens when police recklessly and intentionally use junk science to stand in for a reasonable investigation,” said Dominique Erney, Counsel for Justice System at SCSJ. “CMPD knew for years that its officers could not distinguish between what is legal or illegal based on the mere sight or smell. They kept arresting people anyway. That’s not a mistake; that’s a choice. That should alarm every person who values their liberty.”
“Black people in Charlotte have long borne the brunt of policing practices that have been shown, time and again, to be infected by racial discrimination,” said Janki Kaneria, Counsel for Justice System at SCSJ. “Using junk science to justify an unlawful arrest merely compounds a longstanding problem, and this lawsuit seeks accountability.”
Lee is the grandson of a 30-plus-year New York Police Department officer, a former TSA employee, and someone without a criminal record. In the aftermath of his arrest, his employment was interrupted, his professional and personal reputation suffered, and his relationship with Pierre was strained. He continues to experience significant emotional harm.
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Southern Coalition for Social Justice came together in 2007 to give Black, Brown, and low-income people better resources in the fight for justice across the South. We are lawyers, social scientists, and communications professionals working to dismantle racism and oppression in the criminal legal system, in our environment, and at the ballot box. Learn more at southerncoalition.org and follow our work on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.