Suit against 5 St. Joseph cops to start

 Trial is scheduled to start Monday in a federal lawsuit against the city of St. Joseph and five city police officers claiming the officers used racial profiling in arresting three black teen-agers in 2000. The suit was filed in 2002 on behalf of the three teens - Devin Mitchell, Cody Mitchell and Preston Culpepper. The trial is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Richard Enslen in Kalamazoo. The suit alleges that the city has developed and maintained policies encouraging racial profiling and has not taken proper steps to stop the practice, or adequate steps to investigate complaints of police misconduct. The complaint claims the three teen-agers were targeted as "the group" because they were among the few black teens living in the city. [more]