In a lawsuit filed against a small southeastern Virginia town, Attorney General Mark Herring alleges that the police department of Windsor, VA operated in a manner that led to the discriminatory treatment of African Americans.

The lawsuit stems from a December 2020 traffic stop which involved Windsor police officers and a mixed-race army lieutenant, Caron Nazario.

The traffic stop, which was captured on police officer body cam footage, sparked national outrage because of the way Nazario, a mixed Black and Latino man, was treated. The uniformed officers pulled Nazario over during the traffic stop and had their guns drawn as they approached his vehicle. During the heated altercation, officers can be heard using slang terms that indicated they were going to execute him if he did not comply. Nazario can be seen with his hands out his driver’s window as he calmly but persistently questions officers about why he was pulled over. At one point, Nazario tells the officers that he is “honestly scared to get out.” The army lieutenant was eventually pepper-sprayed and then pulled to the ground where he was handcuffed and arrested.

Herring explained that while the altercation between Nazario and Windsor police prompted the lawsuit, the Attorney General's investigation into the town's police department uncovered a deeper-seated pattern of behavior. “While our investigation was spurred by the egregious treatment against Lt. Nazario that we all saw in bodycam footage, we discovered that this incident was indicative of much larger problems within the department,” Herring shared during a news release. Herring explained that the investigation which spanned several months uncovered practices in law enforcement that created huge disparities against African American drivers. Herring explained that a lot of policies and procedures were in place that helped perpetuate unconstitutional and discriminatory proceedings against African Americans in the town.

Herring's office revealed that during their investigation, the population of African Americans in Windsor was not proportional to the number of police stops and interactions initiated by law enforcement. The investigation details that while Windsor has a population of 3,000 people, the number of African Americans who live in the town is roughly 22%. Despite making up a little over 1/5th of the town’s population, African Americans account for roughly 42% of the police department's traffic stops.

Additionally, between July 1st, 2020 and September 30th, 2021, the town’s police department searched more vehicles driven by black motorists than vehicles driven by white motorists. According to the lawsuit, because of the disproportionate number of traffic stops against African-Americans, the town's Police Department was “performing its law enforcement activities in a discriminatory and biased manner.”

In response to the lawsuit, the town of Windsor contested the allegations and called Herring’s lawsuit a politically-motivated accusation. Herring, a Democrat, lost his bid for re-election to Republican Jason Miyares. Miyares is set to take office mid-January.

The town has refuted allegations of discriminatory policies and procedures and instead has touted that it has taken steps to increase accountability and training throughout its seven-member Police Department.

In addition to asking the court to have the town of Windsor disengage from discriminatory law enforcement practices, it is also seeking that the town hire, at its own expense, a third party that will monitor its procedures and policies in order to make sure that they are complying with state and federal law. The lawsuit is also asking the courts to compel the town to pay a $50,000 civil penalty for each violation of the Virginia Human Rights Act.