‘What Are You Doing?’: North Carolina Cops Punched Black Woman 17 Times, Then Violently Arrested Man Over a Single Cigarette. Now He’s Getting Payback
North Carolina cops who violently arrested a Black man and woman for smoking a legal hemp cigarette at a bus stop in 2023 had no probable cause – and officials had told them that for years.
Like many law enforcement agencies across the country, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has a long history of arresting Black people for low-level marijuana offenses while ignoring white people who consume marijuana at similar rates.
So despite changes in the law, officers evidently could not resist brutalizing the pair over the “odor of marijuana” in an incident captured on bodycam video that went viral.
Earlier this week, Anthony Lee, the Black man arrested that day, filed a federal lawsuit against the Charlotte-Mecklenburg officers who arrested him.
“CMPD’s data show that Black people are more likely to be stopped, detained, and arrested for marijuana possession than white people,” states the lawsuit filed on July 27 by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.
“Indeed, while people of all races consume hemp and marijuana, which are the same plant and cannot be told apart by sight or smell, CMPD’s data show that over 81% of people arrested for misdemeanor marijuana possession alone in Charlotte between 2016 and 2023 are Black.”
“This is one of the various ways in which discriminatory policing practices ensnare Black people in the criminal legal system as a result of engaging in a lawful activity (here, smoking legal hemp) or a minor offense (e.g., simple possession of marijuana).”
Watch the video below.
‘We Got It From the Smoke Shop’
Police arrested Lee and Christina Pierre on November 13, 2023, after they got off work at a Bojangles restaurant, accusing them of “smoking weed.”
“It’s THC-A,” Lee told the officers, adding that they had just purchased the hemp at a store across the street.
“We got it from the smoke shop,” Pierre told the officers while holding the lit cigarette in her hand.
That should have been enough for officers to leave them alone, according to the claim, which states that multiple entities had repeatedly warned police that the mere odor of marijuana no longer establishes probable cause.
Instead, the officers grabbed Lee, and Pierre tried to intervene. “What are you doing?” she asked as the officer pushed her to the side, prompting a violent attack on the woman. According to an internal investigation, he punched her multiple times.
The complaint states that lawmakers enacted these changes through the 2015 North Carolina Industrial Hemp Act and the 2018 federal Farm Bill, both of which legalized hemp.
Like marijuana, hemp is a cannabis plant but contains much lower levels of THC, the compound that produces a high.
Aside from that difference, hemp and marijuana look and smell the same, which means officers no longer have probable cause to make arrests based solely on odor.
Multiple Memos Explaining Law
In 2019, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation issued a memo to local law enforcement agencies explaining the changes.
Hemp and marijuana look the same and have the same odor, both unburned and burned. This makes it impossible for law enforcement to rely on appearance or odor to establish probable cause for arrest, seizure, or a search warrant. Officers must have probable cause that an item is evidence of a crime before seizing it for analysis.
In 2020, Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather announced that his office would no longer prosecute simple drug possession cases, including simple marijuana possession, because of the changes in federal and state law.
In 2021, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department issued a memo to officers stating:
Due to the legalization of hemp and hemp extract (cannabidiol (CBD)) products in North Carolina and the fact that hemp, CBD, and marijuana cannot be distinguished from one another without chemical analysis, officers need additional evidence beyond sight or smell to establish probable cause (PC).
Nevertheless, Charlotte-Mecklenburg officers Kenneth Kludy and Devan Wilson ignored these memos and arrested Lee and Pierre, who were doing nothing more than waiting for the bus and smoking a legally purchased hemp cigarette.
Officers charged Lee with simple possession of marijuana, resisting a public officer, and carrying a concealed gun. They charged Pierre with simple possession, resisting, and assault on a government official after an officer claimed she punched him.
The Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office dismissed the charges two weeks later.
Police Double Down
Even after prosecutors dismissed the charges, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police insisted they had probable cause. In a Dec. 12, 2023 video, the department claimed the hemp later tested positive for marijuana.
That argument fails under the law, which requires officers to establish probable cause before making an arrest – not after.
The video also accuses Pierre of punching an officer, prompting the officer to strike back. But the body-camera footage does not show that moment because the camera fell during the struggle and captured only audio pointed at the sky.
The lawsuit says the video makes “multiple false and misleading claims.”
Police continued targeting Lee. In April 2024, they obtained a warrant accusing him of possessing two stolen guns on the day of the arrest—even though officers initially said they found only one gun and never described it as stolen.
Lee turned himself in in July 2024 and spent 30 hours in jail.
The Mecklenburg County District Attorney dismissed those charges in August 2024, stating prosecutors lacked evidence that Lee knew or had reason to know the firearm was stolen.
The office also said Lee made no admissions and that the “recent possession” doctrine did not apply because officers found the gun on him in November 2023 but did not determine it was stolen until February 2024.
Lee’s lawsuit alleges police violated his Fourth and 14th Amendment rights through false arrest, excessive force, assault and battery, malicious prosecution, and failure to properly train officers.
Pierre is not a plaintiff, though she may file her own lawsuit later against Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer Vincent Pistone, who was suspended for 40 hours for punching her 17 times during her arrest.