LAKELAND, Fla. — A Polk County man arrested on drug charges this past Tuesday accuses the Lakeland Police Department of harassment and retaliation.
Joshua Chatmon was involved in an incident with Lakeland PD about two years ago, but those charges were dropped.
This week, Chatmon was booked again following a minor traffic incident and arrest that he calls payback.
“I just felt totally violated again," Chatmon said. “By one of the same officers that did it to me over two years ago.”
Chatmon says it's nothing short of harassment and retaliation.
“Every day I have to go through this, it's scary,” he said. “I have to look over my shoulder. 'Where are the police at?' Are they going to grab me, are they gonna put me in handcuffs and take me to jail for something that I didn't do?”
According to the police report, Chatmon was pulled over for not wearing his seatbelt. But within minutes, he was in the back of a Lakeland police cruiser being booked on a minor drug charge.
The 34-year-old says Lakeland police have had it out for him ever since an incident about two years ago when he filed a complaint and drug charges against him were dropped.
Our own investigation into that case found several discrepancies between the deposition from the arresting officers in that case and video taken by a nearby Ring doorbell.
Video from Tuesday night shows the police officer who initiated this latest stop was Officer Parker Kellerman – who Chatmon says is one of the same three officers that arrested him in that previous incident in which he had filed a complaint.
“I'm frustrated because I had a situation with Parker Kellerman over two years ago,” Chatmon said.
“And I feel like this was retaliation.”
Moreover, when Chatmon got a copy of his latest arrest report, officer Kellerman's name was not on it, nor mentioned in the narrative.
Instead, Kellerman’s partner that night, Officer Eric Owen, filed the report.
“That told me that he is harassing me, but he doesn't want the public to know that he's the one that's doing it,” Chatmon said. “So, he uses Owen to write the report.”
Less than two weeks earlier, Antwan Glover made similar allegations of retaliation. Glover had previously accused Lakeland police of brutality and criminal charges against him were also dropped.
Chief Sam Taylor called a press conference justifying Glover's latest arrest.
Just three days later, Taylor called another press conference in another case where charges had been dropped and allegations of police brutality leveled involving a Memorial Day confrontation between two officers and 16-year-old Jamal Hudson.
Chief Taylor announced he saw no reason to discipline the officers involved.
“It seems like this is orchestrated,” said Pastor Clayton Cowart, who has called for investigations into each of these cases and others.
Cowart says he doesn't think it's a coincidence.
“It's amazing that the two police officers that complaints were made against arrest the same individuals that made the complaints against them,” he said.
According to the police report, officers collected .11 grams of what they say was cannabis from Chatmon's backpack.
That's about 1/4000th of an ounce.
Pastor Cowart says they have requested an investigation into the traffic stop, and Officer Kellerman's absence from the police report.
10 Tampa Bay reached out to the Lakeland Police Department for their response to the allegations and the department provided the following statement:
“On September 10, 2024, the Lakeland Police Department was conducting the third in a series of saturation initiatives by involving proactive patrols in hotspot areas of the City. An estimated 30 officers from across our agency joined in collaboration with the Florida Highway Patrol and the Polk County Sheriff's Office.
The traffic stop and subsequent arrest of Joshua Chatmon occurred around 8:17 p.m. that evening. Mr. Chatmon was observed driving a vehicle without his seatbelt and rolled past the stop bar of a stop sign. A traffic stop was initiated and during the encounter officers smelled the odor of marijuana emanating from the vehicle. Mr. Chatmon stated to officers repeatedly that he smokes marijuana “all the time.”
Mr. Chatmon was arrested after officers found marijuana inside a bag located inside the vehicle. His interaction with officers was recorded on body-worn cameras and he was taken into custody without incident.
During this saturation initiative fourteen people were arrested by Lakeland Police Officers, along with 36 by the other agencies. Officers frequently come in contact with people they have previously arrested. In any case, an officer’s chance encounter with a person they’ve previously had contact with would not preclude them from taking enforcement action.”