ELLICOTT CITY, Md., Jan. 14 (UPI) -- A lawsuit brought by the family of a Baltimore boy arrested at the age of 7 is being tried this week.
Gerard Mungo Jr. was not charged with anything after his arrest in 2007, and Mayor Sheila Dixon later apologized to his family.
In the lawsuit, the family charges police also arrested Gerard's mother, Lakisa Dinkins, 11 days later as retaliation for the bad publicity over the earlier arrest, The Baltimore Sun reports.
A lawyer for the family grilled the two officers who arrested Dinkins. They denied the arrest had anything to do with a protest rally organized by the NAACP a few hours earlier and said she prevented them from searching a suspected drug dealer they had followed into her house.
During his testimony Monday, Gerard said he was waiting for his father at a dirt bike trail when he was arrested.
Detective Donald Hayes, who made the arrest, testified Dinkins threatened to file a complaint when he confiscated the dirt bike.
"If she calls, I'm going to order you to come back up there to lock him up," Hayes said his supervisor, Sgt. William Colburn, told him.
