Lawsuit says Raleigh police used excessive force while investigating trespassing
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- Raleigh man files a federal lawsuit alleging excessive police force in 2022.
- Lawsuit claims officers injured Sanders and filed false charges later dropped.
- Officers also named in a separate lawsuit over a fatal 2023 Taser incident.
A new lawsuit accuses Raleigh police of using excessive force while investigating a trespassing complaint at a motel, and then falsely charging a man with assaulting a government official and resisting arrest.
TJ Sanders Jr. filed the lawsuit on Thursday in the federal Eastern District of North Carolina against officers Christopher Robinson, Jeremiah Thomas, and the city of Raleigh.
The lawsuit states that the officers and the city violated Sanders’ constitutional rights to be free from excessive force and wrongful arrest during a 2022 encounter with Robinson and Thomas.
The News and Observer sent questions to the Raleigh Police Department, asking whether they had investigated the allegations. In response, a spokesperson stated that the RPD doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation.
On Dec. 18, 2022, Sanders, then 20, and his teenage cousin paid for a room at Super 8 Motel in Raleigh after finishing a late-night shift delivering food, the lawsuit states. The next day, the two slept through their checkout time, and the motel management told them to leave.
When two Raleigh officers arrived, Sanders and his cousin were in the motel room holding their belongings and ready to leave, the lawsuit states. An officer told them to leave the room, and they did, according to the lawsuit.
The officers then followed Sanders and his cousin out of the room, demanding that they identify themselves. Sanders provided his name and birthday, but his cousin refused, the lawsuit states.
The officers handcuffed Sanders’ cousin and pinned him to the ground, the lawsuit states. Sanders used his phone to record Robinson driving his knee and elbow into his cousin’s back.
Lawsuit details alleged assault
Robinson then stood up and shoved Sanders several times, shouting at him to “back up,” and slapped the phone out of his hands, the lawsuit states.
Sanders was unarmed and never attempted to touch Robinson, the lawsuit says. Still, Robinson grabbed Sanders and pulled his hands behind his back to arrest him, the lawsuit states.
“Instead of handcuffing TJ, Officer Robinson slammed his face-first into a large tree root on the ground and kneed him in the back,” the lawsuit states. That split Sanders’ lip and realigned three bottom teeth, the lawsuit states.
Then, in charging documents and statements to the court, Officer Thomas falsely claimed Sanders assaulted Robinson and resisted arrest, the lawsuit states. Sanders was held in jail for about five hours and was required to post a $1,000 bond.
But Sanders’ charges were dismissed about 10 months later, the lawsuit states.
Sanders’ attorney Abraham Rubert-Schewel told The News and Observer that they had been negotiating with city officials for about a year on the case. Sanders decided to file a lawsuit after the city offered to pay “an embarrassingly low amount” to settle the case.
News and Observer reporting in 2024 documented several settlements to lawsuits and complaints accusing Raleigh police of excessive force and other misconduct. The combined cost of the settlements, dating back to 2012, was $4.3 million.
Officers named in previous lawsuit
Robinson and Thomas are also named as defendants in a lawsuit filed in 2024. It contends that officers used excessive force and killed Darryl Williams, 32, when they used a Taser on him multiple times while trying to arrest him on Jan. 17, 2023, about a month after the incident with Sanders.
As police tried to arrest Williams for possession of cocaine, Williams ran from a car in which he was sitting with another person. Officers eventually caught him and held him on the ground while struggling to get Williams’ hands cuffed behind his back. After police used a Taser on Williams at least twice, he begged them not to use a Taser on him again.
“I have heart problems. Please ... please. Please!” Williams said, according to body-camera footage. Police said officers didn’t hear his pleas.
Williams stopped moving and talking after being tased again. Emergency officials took Williams to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Virginia Bridges covers criminal justice in the Triangle and across North Carolina for The News and Observer. Her work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The News and Observer maintains full editorial control of its journalism.
This story was originally published September 5, 2025 at 10:30 AM.
