{"id":132909,"date":"2025-08-09T23:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T23:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/132909\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T23:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T23:18:09","slug":"former-philadelphia-lgbtq-official-sues-pennsylvania-state-police-for-2024-traffic-stop-that-led-to-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/132909\/","title":{"rendered":"Former-Philadelphia LGBTQ official sues Pennsylvania State Police for 2024 traffic stop that led to arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former head of Philadelphia\u2019s Office of LGBTQ Affairs has sued the Pennsylvania State Police and a since-fired state trooper for his actions \u2014 captured on video that went viral \u2014<\/a> when he arrested her and her husband after a 2024 traffic stop. <\/p>\n

Celena Morrison-McLean,52, and her husband, Darius McLean, 36, contend that the former trooper, identified in their suit as Andrew Zaborowski, used force \u201cwithout provocation or justification.\u201d <\/p>\n

Their allegations against Zaborowski include assault, false imprisonment, and battery.<\/p>\n

In the suit, filed Monday in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia, they further accuse the Pennsylvania State Police of negligent hiring, retention, and supervision, and ask for damages in excess of $50,000; damage requests under $50,000 require compulsory arbitration in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: What we know about the Philly LGBT official detained by Pa. State Police<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Pennsylvania State Police said that as a matter of policy the agency does not comment on pending litigation. Zaborowski also declined to comment. <\/p>\n

The incident began on the morning of March 2, 2024 on the Vine Street Expressway. Morrison-McLean was driving a gray Infiniti sedan with an expired and suspended registration, illegally tainted windows, and without illuminated headlights at a time when it was raining, state police said<\/a>. McLean was tailgating Morrison without enough space between the cars. <\/p>\n

The couple were on their way to a mechanic to fix Morrison-McLean\u2019s car, according to the suit. <\/p>\n

Zaborowski signaled Morrison-McLean to pull over, and McLean followed in his rental car, stopping on the shoulder of the expressway as well. <\/p>\n

Zaborowski approached McLean\u2019s vehicle first \u201cwith his service weapon drawn,\u201d the suit says. McLean explained that he was following his wife, when Zaborowski responded \u201cget the F out of the car\u201d and forcibly removed McLean from the vehicle and pushed him to the ground, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

Morrison-McLean then stepped out of her vehicle and began recording the incident on her phone.<\/p>\n

State police said that McLean \u201cbecame verbally combative toward the trooper\u201d and \u201crefused multiple lawful orders\u201d leading to his arrest. Morrison was arrested after attempting to \u201cinterfere\u201d with her husband\u2019s arrest, according to the agency. <\/p>\n

\u201cBoth individuals were arrested for resisting arrest, obstruction of justice, disorderly conduct, and other related charges,\u201d state police said at the time.<\/p>\n

The video of the arrest, which went viral on social media in the following days, begins when McLean is on the pavement as Zaborowski attempts to handcuff him.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you want to get tased? Put your hands behind your back!\u201d the officer can be heard yelling.<\/p>\n

\u201cOK! They are!\u201d McLean says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is my husband! Please!\u201d Morrison-McLean yells.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s OK, baby, it\u2019s OK. … I don\u2019t know why he\u2019s doing this,\u201d McLean says. <\/p>\n

At one point Morrison-McLean shouts toward the officer, \u201cI work for the mayor! I work for the mayor!\u201d Zaborowski responds by telling her to \u201cshut the f\u2014 up.” <\/p>\n

Later in the video, she is heard saying: \u201cHe just punched me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morrison-McLean said that she mentioned her position with the mayor\u2019s office an \u201cattempt to de-escalate the situation,\u201d according to the complaint. <\/p>\n

The two were held for roughly 12 hours before they were released Saturday night, the suit said.<\/p>\n

State police initially filed several misdemeanor and summary charges against the duo, but the District Attorney\u2019s Office declined the charges<\/a> \u201cpending additional review.\u201d Court records indicate the no charges have been filed against them.<\/p>\n

The widely circulated video led to comments by elected officials<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker called the footage \u201cvery concerning,\u201d<\/a> and Councilmember Rue Landau, the first openly LGBTQ member of City Council, called it \u201calarming<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking about the incident a few days later<\/a>, Morrison-McLean said that she never felt more helpless than she did during the traffic stop. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s disheartening that as Black individuals, we are all too familiar with the use of the phrase, \u2018Stop resisting,\u2019 as a green light for excessive force by law enforcement,\u201d Morrison-McLean said at the time.<\/p>\n

Kevin Mincey, an attorney with Mincey Fitzpatrick Ross who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the couple, did not respond to requests for comment. <\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Pa. state trooper who arrested a Philly LGBTQ official has been fired, union says<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Two months after the stop, Zaborowski was fired from the State Police<\/a> after the agency opened an internal investigation<\/a> into the stop. <\/p>\n

Stephen Polishan, president of the Pennsylvania State Trooper Association, criticized the decision. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe department\u2019s leadership should have fought against the attacks made about this young man\u2019s character. Instead, they abandoned him,\u201d Polishan said in May 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a statement on X<\/a>, Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacey Garrity said that that Zaborowski was a victim of \u201cpolitical retribution\u201d after he arrested \u201ca well-connected Philly politician.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morrison-McLean was appointed to lead the office in 2020 by then-Mayor Jim Kenney <\/a>and was the first openly transgender person to lead the Philadelphia office. She left the post in November 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Staff writers Ellie Rushing and Michelle Myers contributed to this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former head of Philadelphia\u2019s Office of LGBTQ Affairs has sued the Pennsylvania State Police and a since-fired…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":132910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1448,2830,1311,80527,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-132909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-pa","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-lgbtq-official-traffic-stop-arrests-lawsuit","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115001367160825836","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}