I-TEAM: Federal lawsuit details new Brave Cave sexual assault allegations

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - A new federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, February 20, 2024 details new sexual assault allegations that reportedly happened inside the Brave Cave back in June 2023.

Body camera video obtained by the WAFB I-TEAM shows what looks like a war zone outside an Aster Street home. Baton Rouge Police Department SWAT and the now disbanded Street Crimes Unit have shown up to the home to carry out a search warrant of the property.

“This is the Baton Rouge City Police Department. Come to the front door with your hands up now,” officers can be heard saying over a loudspeaker.

Officers swarmed the place looking for glock switches and guns after getting reports of someone shooting into the air in the neighborhood. According to a police report, officers did find guns inside the home—one of which they say was stolen. The body camera video is muted in various parts throughout, but during the search, they take four people into custody including a mother and her 17-year-old, 15-year-old and 11-year-old sons. Officers struggle to get one of the boys into the back of a unit and the teen can be heard complaining that an officer hit him.

“I’ll cooperate but why you slapped me in my face three f**king times,” the teen said.

Another one of the boys has a similar complaint, saying he was hit in the mouth with a stun gun.

“Tell my mama how your officer hit me in my mouth,” the teen said. “That’s illegal. That’s illegal.”

At some point during the raid, officers made the youngest boy sit in the back of a police unit dressed only in his underwear. Hours later, officers can be seen escorting him across the street and inside the home to get dressed. Attorney Ryan Thompson says it’s what happened after the search that led him to file the federal lawsuit on behalf of the family. In addition, Thompson filed an Internal Affairs complaint with BRPD.

“Given that one of these victims are the youngest Brave Cave victim that I’ve seen thus far and given that this involves another woman and her family, it’s very concerning,” said Thompson.

While inside the Brave Cave, the attorney alleges the entire family was separated and forced to strip naked and undergo a body cavity search. At one point, Thompson says one of the boys claims a high-ranking officer knocked him unconscious.

“According to the victim, the 15-year-old and his mother, that 15-year-old was taken to a secluded place by that Lt. who closed the doors and he was knocked unconscious,” said Thompson.

Thompson not only alleges in the federal lawsuit that the mother was strip searched by a male officer but he says the 11-year-old told forensic interviewers he was sexually assaulted while inside the Brave Cave.

“I won’t go into too much detail and I don’t want to get too explicit but the allegation is that a sexual assault occurred,” said Thompson. “There was a strip search that was performed and there was a body cavity search that was performed as well and one of the allegations is that his private parts were touched and or held.”

The family has also filed a restraining order against the officer accused of inappropriately touching the 11-year-old boy.

“And one of the reasons we’re seeking it is that every time he sees that officer, he has to relive that and he’s then going through other emotional changes from having to relive that every time he sees this officer,” said Thompson.

These are not the first troubling allegations that have come out of the infamous Brave Cave that the department and the FBI are now investigating. The facility was permanently closed back in August after the WAFB I-TEAM first exposed beatings and illegal strip searches that were allegedly carried out there. Much like the cases that came before it, in this case there is also not a single frame of video from inside the Brave Cave and despite several officers on scene during the raid, Thompson says the body camera video his team did receive from a handful of the officers involved is limited. Body camera video worn by one of the officers appears to show the officer drive up to the Brave Cave, but as he passes 1st District, he starts to touch his body camera and the video abruptly goes dark.

“What’s concerning for me is that every time you get close to the Brave Cave, that body camera footage seems to disappear, the dash cam footage seems to disappear and there’s nothing that shows us exactly what happens on the inside,” said Thompson.

Thompson also finds it troubling that there are the medical records where the mother and one of her teen sons went to the hospital after the ordeal. She was treated for stress before being booked into parish prison and her son was treated for scrapes on his right shoulder. Despite being sent to the hospital and despite more than one use of force complaint made during the encounter, none of that made it into the police report about the incident.

“I think it is tell-tale that there are omissions in the report from this officer,” said Thompson. “We can clearly see on body worn camera where the 17-year-old and 15-year-old make allegations that there was use of force used against them. When those things are not placed in an affidavit of probable cause and when those things are not placed in police reports, it casts a large shadow of doubt about what transpired that day.”

WAFB has reached out to BRPD for comment on this report. A spokesman did acknowledge receipt of that request and said an Internal Affairs complaint has been filed and is currently under investigation.

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