2 city women sue Youngstown police officers

YOUNGSTOWN — A civil lawsuit alleges city police filed new criminal charges last month against two South Side women in retaliation for an internal-affairs complaint and an earlier lawsuit filed by one of them.

The new lawsuit was filed Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court by Desiree Johnson, 45, of West Princeton Avenue, and Doretha Weston, 35, of Miller Avenue, against the city, and Lt. Kevin Mercer and Patrolman Patrick Mulligan, both of the city police department.

City Law Director Anthony Farris said late this afternoon he could not comment because he had not read the new complaint.

In July 2011, Johnson filed suit in common pleas court against Mercer and Mulligan for their alleged actions in a July 10, 2009, incident involving her 12-year-old son, and the officers removed that suit to federal court two months later.

The federal complaint, pending before U.S. District Judge Benita Y. Pearson, alleges the officers violated her son’s constitutional rights when Mulligan held him at gunpoint and Mercer performed a body cavity search on him without justification on the city’s South Side.

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