Charlottesville Police Department

A federal class action lawsuit alleges two violations of constitutional rights when the Charlottesville Police Department asked local African American men to submit to DNA testing when they hunted for a serial rapist. The lawsuit claims that the policy of asking black men to submit their DNA for tests violates their constitutional right to equal protection because white men were not asked to submit their DNA following unsolved sexual assaults made by white assailants. As well, the suit alleges that the policy constituted unreasonable seizures.