Baton Rouge police officer accused of sexually battering 11-year-old at BRAVE Cave

A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses Baton Rouge police officers of beating, sexually battering and unlawfully strip-searching children at the now-infamous “BRAVE Cave” last June.

It’s the newest accusation in a swath of lawsuits to hit the department over the last several months. Multiple federal complaints accuse officers with the now-disbanded Street Crimes Unit of beating and conducting illegal strip searches on detainees brought to the BRAVE Cave, an unmarked warehouse used for narcotics investigations that’s now been shut down and is being investigated by the FBI.

BRPD spokesman L’Jean McKneely said Tuesday evening that the department received an administrative complaint regarding the strip-searching and beatings earlier that day and will investigate it. McKneely also said that police had made multiple arrests during their execution of a search warrant on the home in question and that guns were confiscated at that time.

He added that the department typically does not comment on pending litigation but is preparing a statement in response to the allegations.

The lawsuit, filed by Lakeisha Varnado and Tredonovan Raby on behalf of them and their three children, alleges that in the early morning hours of June 6, Baton Rouge police officers broke open the doors and windows to her home while executing a search warrant on the property.

One of the children, who was 11 at the time, was taken outside the home in only his underwear while the search took place, the lawsuit alleges. The other children, ages 15 and 17, thought their home was being burglarized and attempted to run out the house. The lawsuit alleges the 15-year-old was stunned with a Taser and handcuffed, and the 17-year-old was tackled and struck multiple times by another officer in the kitchen.

As these alleged acts took place, the 11-year-old was detained in the back of a police car, sobbing and asking for his mother while still in his underwear. He asked six times in 30 minutes to use the restroom to no avail, and spent multiple hours in the police unit, only sometimes with his mother, the lawsuit alleges.

An officer told him to “shut the ‘h’ up” and “go put clothes on,” when he was briefly taken inside to put on clothing before he and his family were transported to the BRAVE Cave, the lawsuit alleges.

Attorney Ryan Thompson, who’s representing the family, said the house was left with broken windows and doors and was later robbed of its television and electronics as a result.

At the BRAVE Cave, Officer Joseph Carboni performed an unconstitutional strip search and body cavity search on Varnado, the lawsuit alleges.

Later, the 11-year-old child asked Carboni to use the restroom, at which point Carboni took the child out of view of other adults and ordered him to strip. Carboni proceeded to conduct a body cavity search on the child and allegedly groped his genitals, according to the lawsuit.

The child told his mother about the search immediately after and later described it in an interview to a forensic psychologist at LSU, the lawsuit says.

“That’s a bombshell,” Thompson said. “No one wants to hear an allegation of a child being molested or a sexual assault happening to a child. When he shared with me what happened, I couldn’t believe it.”

The 15-year-old child was separated from his mother at the BRAVE Cave. The complaint alleges that Lt. Lorenzo Coleman dragged him into a holding cell and choked and punched the child until he went unconscious.

The lawsuit says no video or audio captured the alleged acts inside the BRAVE Cave, despite it being department policy for officers to wear body-worn cameras.

In addition to the federal lawsuit, Varnado and her family are seeking a restraining order to prevent Carboni from being in proximity to the 11-year-old.

Carboni is accused in another BRAVE Cave lawsuit of kicking and punching 21-year-old Jeremy Lee to the point he was later treated for a fractured rib. Lee said Carboni beat him with Troy Lawrence Jr., who has since resigned from the department and been arrested on a battery count, and Officer Matthew Wallace.

Coleman, the former head of the Street Crimes Unit, is accused in another BRAVE Cave lawsuit of conspiring with Chief of Staff Myron Daniels to shut down a 2018 Internal Affairs investigation. The two own a security consulting firm together, according to the lawsuit.

“How many more lawsuits do I have to file?” Thompson, who represents Lee, Varnado and several other plaintiffs in BRAVE Cave lawsuits, asked. “How many more people have to come forward?”

Since the first allegations of abuse at the BRAVE Cave erupted in August, four other officers have been arrested in addition to Lawrence Jr.: his father, Deputy Chief Troy Lawrence Sr.; Jesse Barcelona; Todd Thomas; and Doug Chutz. The four are accused of beating a suspect during a body cavity search and later disposing of the body camera footage, according to police.