A Cheyenne man who said he was kicked out of East High School recently for refusing to use preferred transgender names is now suing Cheyenne police over a different incident.
Gene Clemetson filed a federal lawsuit against the city, police department and two officers Monday.
Clemetson accuses officers of dragging him from his vehicle and attacking him on a false assumption that he was driving drunk.
Clemetson’s lawsuit accuses CPD officers of ripping him out of his vehicle and forcing him to perform sobriety tests when he was not drunk because he’s Black.
It's the second high-profile tiff Clemetson's had with a government agency in the past few months. In June, he said he was kicked out of East High School fore refusing to use preferred transgender names of students.
That conflict begame when a student Clemetson described as a boy identifying as a girl approached him and asked to be called by an alternate name.
"I said to him, very politely, I have to go by the name on the roster," he told Cowboy State Daily at the time.
A recording of his meeting with Laramie County School District 1 human resources officials indicated there were other conflicts as well, such as claims Clemetson spoke poorly of a teacher and a film about plastic pollution.
It Escalates
In Monday's complaint, he says he was leaving an 11-hour shift at the U.S. Postal Service at 10:30 the evening of Sept. 9, 2022, after having “not a drop” to drink.
He made a right turn after slowing “briefly” at a yellow light. A CPD agent pulled him over, says the complaint.
The “leading officer” claimed he could smell alcohol on Clemetson, allegedly. A back-and-forth conversation with numerous officers followed, and escalated the discussion.
“Your claim is bogus,” said Clemetson, according to the complaint’s account of the body camera footage. Other officers reportedly said they couldn’t smell well due to allergies or COVID, which the complaint calls excuses.
Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill and the Cheyenne Police Department both declined Tuesday to comment to Cowboy State Daily. Cheyenne’s mayor said he was not available to comment.
Officer Jason Chapin had called for backup during the incident, saying Clemetson ran the red light and was “just super bloodshot, uncooperative” and smelled of alcohol, says the document.
The document says the largest male officer on scene eventually leaned into Clemetson’s vehicle and behaved in what the complaint calls a threatening, assaultive manner.
“Now, there are five officers on scene and engaged in this stop for an alleged running of a red light,” the document says. It accuses the larger male officer of removing Clemetson from his vehicle by pulling his arm while others surround him and two more hold onto him in an apparent weapon check.
The officers “force cuffed (Clemetson) under no legal cause whatsoever” while one officer smiled and wagged his finger in Clemetson’s face, the complaint alleges.
After 21 minutes, Clemetson was reportedly allowed to reenter his vehicle.
The complaint accuses an officer of dragging Clemetson from his car aggressively.
Clemetson told the police they “knelt in 2020 to BLM” — presumably, the Black Lives Matter movement. Another officer, Brockton Hayden, allegedly laughed.
Teacher’s Ask
Clemetson accuses the defendants of discriminating racially against him and of denying him equal protection on the basis of his race.
He’s asking for the court to fix the defendant’s allegedly wrongful actions as appropriate. He’s also asking for actual, compensatory and punitive damages to be determined at trial, plus pre- and post-judgment interest and attorneys’ fees.
Cheyenne-based attorney Cassie Craven filed the complaint on Clemetson’s behalf.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to include more information about the June incident at East High School.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
