‘Attempted to Plant Narcotics In My Car’: Black Man Falsely Arrested on Fabricated Charges Runs for U.S. Senate In Alabama to Combat State’s New ‘Back the Blue’ Law
Federal courts in this country have long protected police officers from lawsuits in the name of qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that shields cops from civil lawsuits unless their actions violated a “clearly established statutory or constitutional rights.”
But last month, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed the “Back the Blue” bill into law which expands qualified immunity, making it even tougher for citizens abused by police to sue them for their unconstitutional actions in state courts.
Now, a Black man named Dakarai Larriett, who last year was falsely arrested by Michigan state police on fabricated charges that he had been driving under the influence, is running for U.S. Senate in Alabama to fight for criminal justice reform.
“I am running for office due to a very personal event that happened last year when I was falsely arrested in Michigan,” Larriett said in an exclusive video interview with Atlanta Black Star, posted below.
“I was thrown into jail, my driver’s license was confiscated for two and a half months, and I still have not received justice for that night.”
“In fact, five months after the incident, I realized not only was I harassed and racialized that night, but also, the troopers attempted to plant narcotics in my car.”
He has since left Michigan back to his home state of Alabama where the state’s new Back the Blue law is very personal for him because his own lawsuit was dismissed by a Michigan judge.
“When I think about what’s happening here in Alabama, the expansion of qualified immunity, it seems like it’s open season for folks who look like me,” he said.
Watch the Atlanta Black Star interview below.
False Arrest
Larriett, who comes from a family of cops, was arrested in April 2024 after he was pulled over by police at 3 a.m. as he was driving a friend home.
The cops accused of failing to make a complete stop at two flashing red lights, then accused him of smelling like alcohol.
Body camera video shows Michigan State Trooper George Kanyuh asking Larriett when did he have his last drink.
“Has it been at least two hours?” Kanyuh asked.
When Larriett replied yes, the cop then tried to manipulate the situation by claiming his answer meant he had been drinking two hours earlier.
However, the way the cop phrased the question by asking if it had been “at least two hours” since he last had a drink, Larriett could have gone years without having a drink and still have answered the question honestly.
When Larriett realized the cop was trying to manipulate the situation, he clarified that he had not been drinking that evening.
That was when the cop ordered him out of the car, accusing him of changing his story.
“Why are you changing your story on us?” Kanyuh asked.
“I said two hours and now I smell it on your breath, and now you’re denying it all,” he said. “That’s suspicious to me.”
“I’m not commenting any further,” Larriett replied, realizing the cop was trying to set him up.
The cop then tried to accuse him of having consumed marijuana but he denied that as well.
The cops had Larriett submit to field sobriety tests and then placed him under arrest, driving him to a hospital to draw his blood, which proved he was neither under the influence of weed or booze, but he still spent six hours in jail before bailing out.
The charge of driving under the influence was dismissed within days, but it still took Michigan state police more than two months to return his driver’s license.
Five months later when he obtained the body camera footage to prepare his lawsuit, which he said was edited and redacted, he came across a portion of the video where Kanyuh is searching through the trunk of his patrol car for his “stash” that Larriett believes was evidence the cops were trying to plant drugs on him.
But the cops told the judge they were seeking the breathalyzer instrument to administer it to him which was one reason why the judge dismissed the lawsuit which he is appealing.
“It was almost as if the judge was the police’s defense attorney and ignored all of the evidence and basically said I was suspicious for driving at 3 a.m.,” Larriett said. “At 42 years old at the time, I guess I had a curfew.”
“That is what is so scary about qualified immunity, everything that happened that night, all that evidence, the drug planting on camera, doesn’t matter,” he said.
“We can’t even discuss it because the stop itself in the opinion of the judge valid.”
“So that’s what opened the door to qualified immunity, and that is why I’m so worried about HB202 (the Alabama Back the Blue law).
The initial lawsuit described an X account belonging to Kanyuh that contained racist, homophobic and misogynistic language, including one retweet of a photo of a Black woman captioned, “Met the biggest beauty of a crackhead last night” and another retweet of a white man burning a Colin Kaepernick jersey.
That account, @GKanyuh, has since been deleted but not before Larriett was able to gather screenshots.
“Trooper George Michael Kanyuh is not shy about his bias and prejudices against gay people and Black people. A simple gander at his social media that was still up as of this writing is indicative of that,” the complaint stated.
Last year, Larriett hired a forensics specialist to view the video who not only determined the video had been redacted and muted in several portions but that Larriett was not showing signs of impairment.
“As a forensic examiner for 20 years, I have seen many DUI traffic stop videos,” wrote Jim Stafford, Forensic Examiner for Eclipse Forensics. “This is one of just a few I have examined where I did not see signs of impairment.”
Stafford further stated the following in his report:
“Although Officer Kanyuh’s actions may have been well intentioned it is my opinion that he misrepresented the field sobriety test results to conform with a predetermined finding of marijuana use by Mr. Larriett. I have recommended to my client that he obtain the unredacted videos to have an accurate representation of the actions on 04/10/2024. Examining that metadata would determine authenticity.”
Larriett plans to continue fighting for justice in his own case as he runs for office to help Alabama citizens abused by the system.
“It’s going to get to the point where the police can do anything without any repercussions or accountability to the public,” he said.