ReOpen NC protester arrested for violating stay-at-home order; sues Gov. Cooper

A protester who police arrested three years ago during a rally opposing the pandemic stay-at-home order has filed a federal lawsuit claiming her civil and constitutional rights were violated.

Monica Ussery, who lived in Holly Springs at the time of her arrest, was taken into custody on April 14, 2020, while standing in a state-owned parking lot at the corner of Jones and Wilmington streets in downtown Raleigh during the first ReOpen NC rally.

Tap here: Read the lawsuit filed by Monica Ussery

The ReOpen NC movement mobilized online in March 2020 after Gov. Roy Cooper announced restrictions to schools, businesses and gatherings to slow the spread of COVID-19.

As the crowd grew on that day in April, Raleigh police instructed the crowd to disperse from the area. The department posted on Twitter that day declaring “protesting is a non-essential activity.” Cooper said the next day his orders "do not interfere with people's constitutional rights” but with "unlawful mass gatherings."

The roughly 100 people who gathered for the rally eventually dispersed after repeated warnings from police — announced using a speaker system — to leave because the protesters were violating the mass gathering restrictions.

In body camera video leaked this month and posted online by an independent journalist, officers can be heard discussing a plan for warning the crowd and preparing to make arrests.

“I want to go ahead and start making some moves now because I don’t want the crowd to continue to grow and everything so I want to go ahead and start locking people up as soon as possible and everything so that will encourage everybody else to disperse,” one officer can be heard saying on the body camera video.

Ussery was the only protester arrested by police for not leaving. She said she did not hear the multiple warnings over honking cars from where she was standing in the parking lot and she believes she was not given enough notice to leave.

“After a police officer said, ‘Ma'am, you need to also leave,' I had handcuffs on me within five seconds. I counted,” Ussery recalled. “We heard nothing that was coming from the sidewalk or across the street.”

The North Carolina State Capitol Police wrote in a report that Ussery refused multiple demands to leave and told officers she was “designated for arrest” while she was being transported to the Wake County Detention Center. Ussery denies the claim she was designated for arrest.

“She was the only one who ended up being arrested and I think what you see at the end of that video is her intent not to comply and at that point law enforcement has a responsibility to enforce the law,” said Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman.

Ussery said she did not release the video that was leaked online April 14 showing Raleigh Police Department officers; however, she must appear for a contempt hearing on April 28 because the judge’s order was violated.

“The reality is law enforcement went out of their way to — in a safe space — give people an opportunity to exercise their first amendment right and gain that voluntary compliance and to get people to disperse.”

In a bench trial in 2021, Ussery was found guilty of two misdemeanors — violating an executive order and trespassing. She appealed the ruling. The charges were dropped this February before the case reached a trial.

The three-year ordeal is the foundation of a federal lawsuit against Cooper, Freeman and several law enforcement officials that alleges violations of Ussery’s civil and constitutional rights and challenges the constitutionality of the pandemic-era executive orders.

"Whether it was shuttering houses of worship, closing schools, or destroying small businesses, in the name of public health…These officials’ power grabs were remarkable, unprecedented in American history and far-reaching, with the consequences still being felt years later,” reads the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

Ussery said she hopes new legal precedent is set for future lockdowns and executive orders.

“I think the next person standing in the parking lot who is daring to disagree with any governor [or] any elected official should have that right protected and shouldn’t be picked on,” Ussery said.

In the midst of her criminal case, Ussery’s defense team secured body camera video from the Raleigh Police Department and State Capitol Police. The judge ruled the video could be released but could not be disseminated publicly.