Benjy Taylor hired legal representation following a bizarre incident at the college basketball game against Morehouse College on Saturday. Renowned civil rights attorney Harry Daniels will work alongside Gregory Reynald Williams and Gerald Griggs to represent the head coach at Tuskegee University.
The three attorneys are currently investigating all legal avenues, including a possible lawsuit.
New videos of the unfortunate college basketball incident sheds even more light on what happened. Taylor was escorted off the court in handcuffs by a local police officer in Atlanta.
Tuskegee basketball coach Benjy Taylor was placed in handcuffs.
Morehouse defeated Tuskegee by eight points during the Division II matchup on Saturday afternoon. The postgame handshake line very quickly devolved into chaos.
A group of Morehouse football players — who heckled the visiting Golden Tigers throughout the entire game — got behind coach Taylor in the line. They were rowdy. It was antagonistic.
Coach Benjy Taylor asked a nearby police officer to help clear the football players from the line, as their presence on the court violated the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference security protocols. The police officer went the other way with coach Taylor’s request.
The officer found coach Taylor to be hostile. He put him in handcuffs and perp walked him out of the college basketball gym in a parade of hubris.
Multiple videos of the incident provide a better account of how it all went down in real time. They appear to contradict and discredit the officer’s account of what happened. Tuskegee President Dr. Mark A. Brown issued a letter of support for coach Taylor, who was later released in time to get on the team bus back to Alabama.
A prominent civil rights attorney is exploring a lawsuit.
It was announced on Sunday that coach Benjy Taylor is going to explore legal action. Renowned national civil rights attorney Harry Daniels and attorneys Gregory Reynald Williams and Gerald Griggs will serve as his legal counsel.
They claim the group of players from Morehouse’s football team were acting “aggressively towards the Tuskegee players and their parents.” The intermingling on the court during the postgame handshake line is prohibited by conference-mandated security protocols.
Coach Taylor asked two of the officers present to remove the football players from the court. The second officer placed him in handcuffs. He was never charged with a crime.
“It would be bad for a police officer to treat anyone like this,” said Daniels. “But to do it to a man like Coach Taylor, a highly respected professional and role model, to put him in handcuffs, humiliate him and treat him like a criminal in front of his team, his family and a gym full of fans is absolutely disgusting and they need to be held accountable.”
“Coach Taylor is a good man who did the right thing to protect his team and deescalate a dangerous situation and this officer put him in chains for his troubles.”
Daniels, Williams and Griggs are working on a plan for how to proceed. All legal avenues are currently on the table. That includes a potential lawsuit. Stay tuned for updates.