Jury quickly decides Lowell cop did not use excessive force in arresting a man who claims he's Moroccan for traffic offenses

A federal jury ruled today that a Lowell cop did not use excessive force in arresting Leonitus Jabir Bey following a traffic stop in 2019 and so he gets nothing, rather than the $9 million - payable in cash - he had demanded.

Bey says he is not a Moorish sovereign citizen but acknowledges he is a supporter of Rise of the Moors, the sovereign-citizen group that had an hours-long standoff with police on Rte. 128 in Wakefield. And he professes many of the same beliefs as Moorish sovereign citizens, including that he is not subject to US laws, that he is a Moroccan citizen and that referring to him as "Black" is rank discrimination.

Bey sued the officer who arrested him - David Pender - the city of Lowell, the Middlesex County sheriff's department and Charlie Baker following his arrested in Lowell, alleging that the officer beat him and "denationalized" him and that the officer and others committed genocide, although nobody was actually killed. A federal judge dismissed all but Pender from the suit.

Bey acted as his own lawyer, with the counsel of Jamhal Talib Abdullah Bey of Providence, the leader of Rise of the Moors. The trial started yesterday and ended today.