Slidell teen who filmed mom's arrest wins in court, St. Tammany Sheriffs to pay $185k

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A federal jury has ordered the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office to pay a Slidell teenager, De’Shaun Johnson, $185,000 in damages after finding that a deputy inflicted emotional distress while Johnson attempted to film his mother’s arrest.

Johnson, who was 14 at the time, was filming the arrest in the driveway of his Slidell home on May 5, 2020, when Deputy Ryan Moring pulled out his Taser and aimed it at Johnson.

“You can’t tase a child,” Johnson said.

“Watch me,” Moring responded.

The jury, which rendered its verdict on May 1 in the Louisiana Eastern District Court, also determined the deputies did not violate Johnson’s First Amendment rights when Moring blocked Johnson from continuing to film his mother’s arrest.

The ACLU of Louisiana, which prosecuted the case along with attorneys from the law firm Reid Collins & Tsai, celebrated its victory last week.

“We are thrilled to see justice served for De’Shaun,” said Nora Ahmed, legal director of the ACLU of Louisiana.

St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Randy Smith said his deputies’ actions were found to be “constitutionally appropriate,” according to STPSO spokesperson Suzanne Carboni. The sheriff’s office will appeal the verdict on what it called “a meritless claim for emotional harm.”

The verdict comes after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that the deputies acted lawfully when they arrested the teen’s mother, Teliah Perkins. In the lawsuit Perkins filed in May 2021, she accused the deputies of “pressing her face to the pavement and digging their knees into her back and legs.”

On the day of the arrest, the deputies were responding to a call about someone riding a dirt bike without a helmet in Perkins’ neighborhood. Perkins has a motorcycle, not a dirt bike, and had not been riding it without a helmet. Still, the arrest escalated after Perkins suggested that the incident may have been racially motivated, according to the complaint.

In the video of the arrest that Johnson filmed, the deputies can be seen pressing Perkins in the ground as she is arrested. The complaint alleges that Hart wrapped his "hand around her neck" and leaned on it, prompting Perkins to yell, "you're choking me."

“After all these years, to finally see justice served brings me peace and joy,” Johnson said after last week’s verdict. “I'm proud of myself and my mom for refusing to accept what happened to us and for fighting for the justice we are owed.”

A proposed state law would make it a misdemeanor crime for anyone to be within 25 feet of any law enforcement officer while they’re conducting “law enforcement duties.” That would make the manner in which Johnson filmed his mother’s arrest illegal.

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