ICE Agent Demands Papers from Off-Duty Black Police Officer — He’s a Lieutenant, Wins $13.9M Lawsuit

ICE Agent Demands Papers from Off-Duty Black Police Officer — He Wins $13.9M Lawsuit

It was a typical Tuesday morning, but for Lieutenant Marcus Hayes, 23 years of service with the Phoenix Police Department couldn’t shield him from a shocking experience that would change his life. At 9:47 a.m., Hayes stopped at a Shell station on McDow Road to refuel after an overnight shift, still wearing his Phoenix Suns t-shirt, basketball shorts, and sunglasses. What seemed like a routine gas stop turned into the most costly moment of his life, all because of his race.

As Hayes pumped gas into his F-150, three Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents approached him from a white government SUV. With their body cameras rolling, they began to question him, treating him as a suspect in a case he had no part of.

Agent Todd Brennan, leading the approach, asked for identification and proof of legal status. Hayes immediately identified himself as a Phoenix PD officer, offering his badge and ID, which were in his truck just a few feet away. But Brennan wasn’t buying it. “Sure you are. Everyone’s got a story,” he said, dismissing Hayes’s identity without hesitation.

Despite Hayes’s calm response and his request to have his identity verified by his precinct, Brennan and his team persisted in their aggressive questioning. They demanded citizenship papers, ignoring Hayes’s badge, his long career as a police officer, and his repeated assertion of his rights.

“I’ve been a Phoenix police officer for 23 years. If you call my precinct, they’ll verify,” Hayes said. But the ICE agents, clearly uninterested in his credentials, continued to hold him, attempting to detain him without any legal basis.

As the agents surrounded Hayes in a tight triangle, it became clear that they had already decided he was a threat based on one thing alone—his skin color. Hayes, now visibly frustrated, asked, “What reasonable suspicion do you have that I’m here illegally besides the color of my skin?” But the agents pressed on, determined to detain him. They even went as far as to pocket his driver’s license, stating that it didn’t prove citizenship, demanding instead a passport or birth certificate.

The tense standoff continued as Hayes, an experienced officer himself, cited his Fourth Amendment rights, refusing to comply with their unlawful detention. He knew that any attempt to resist could escalate the situation, but he also knew he couldn’t let this go unchallenged. “I am invoking my Fourth Amendment rights. You have no reasonable suspicion to detain me. You have no probable cause to arrest me,” he said firmly.

Despite his calm demeanor and repeated attempts to clarify his identity, the agents handcuffed him and transported him to the ICE field office for “verification.” The ride was uncomfortable, with Hayes, still handcuffed, seated in the back of the SUV as agents refused to call his precinct, leaving him to stew in his frustration.

At the field office, Hayes was placed in a holding room where he spent three hours in detention—despite being a natural-born citizen, a police lieutenant, and having a legitimate identification that proved his status. Finally, after a long and uncomfortable wait, the ICE agents confirmed his identity and released him, but not before his civil rights had been trampled.

What followed was a legal battle that would cost the U.S. government $13.9 million in damages. With the help of civil rights attorney Amanda Torres, Hayes filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government, claiming unlawful detention, racial profiling, and violation of his constitutional rights. The body camera footage, which showed the entire ordeal, was damning. The three angles of the footage captured every moment of Hayes’s unlawful detention, showing how the agents ignored his identification, dismissed his claims of being a police officer, and continued to hold him without cause.

The trial, which took place 19 months after the incident, became a symbol of racial profiling and overreach. It captured the attention of the media and civil rights organizations, drawing support from fellow law enforcement officers and the community. Hayes’s testimony was powerful, detailing how he had been humiliated and treated like a criminal in his own city, while defending his right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The defense’s attempt to justify the agents’ actions with vague intelligence about illegal employment in the area fell apart under cross-examination. The jury, clearly moved by the evidence, deliberated for just eight days before returning a guilty verdict on all counts. The jury awarded Hayes $9.4 million in compensatory damages and $4.5 million in punitive damages, bringing the total to $13.9 million.

The agents involved in the incident—Brennan, Valdez, and Kim—were reassigned to desk positions, and the supervisor overseeing the operation was demoted. Although the Department of Homeland Security issued statements claiming to have reviewed the incident, they stopped short of acknowledging any systemic failure or the racial profiling that had occurred.

Hayes, using a portion of his settlement, went on to establish a legal defense organization that helps those detained by immigration enforcement, providing free legal assistance to victims of unlawful detentions. His case became a landmark moment, taught in police academies and law schools as a cautionary tale of how racial profiling and bias can destroy lives.

This incident serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of overreach and racial bias in law enforcement. The story of Lieutenant Marcus Hayes is not just about one man’s fight for justice—it’s about the rights of every American citizen to be treated with dignity and respect, no matter their skin color.