Boy, 10, Gets Arrested and Held in Jail over a Mind-Blowing Reason – His Mom Sues the Police for $2 Million

A young boy's ordinary action a few months ago led to extraordinary consequences, leading to a public uproar. His mother's response has now sparked a legal battle.

In August 2023, Latonya Eason stopped by a Senatobia attorney’s office for legal advice, accompanied by her 10-year-old son Quantavious Eason.

Within ten minutes, Latonya’s meeting with her attorney was interrupted by a police officer. It turns out that while there, Quantavious felt the need to relieve himself and urinated behind his mother’s car. A police officer saw him.

Latonya questioned her son about relieving himself in a public space and he told her that his sister informed him that there were no public toilets inside the attorney’s office.

Latonya told her child he should have come inside the office and asked her about the restroom instead. At that moment, a law enforcement officer was present, saying that since Latonya handled the situation like a parent, Quantavious could get back in the car.

However, following that conversation, more law enforcement officers arrived. One officer approached Latonya and said Quantavious needed to get out of the vehicle because he was under arrest, stating what he did was unacceptable.

“I started crying a little bit,” Quantavious revealed during an interview following the incident. They got him out of the truck and took him to jail. At that point, he had no idea what was happening.

The police held the young boy in a jail cell and charged him with a child in need of services. They then released him to his mother. “That could really really traumatize my baby,” said Latonya.

“I’m just speechless right now because, for one, I can’t believe it happened. Like, why would you arrest a ten-year-old kid?” Latonya commented on how everything unfolded. As for her son, who is now 11 years old, he reflected during the same interview, saying, “I started shaking and thinking that I’m going to jail.”

After the incident became public, the Senatobia police chief, Richard Chandler, released a statement to a news channel on what transpired. He stated that one of the officers witnessed a minor committing an act that would have been illegal had it been an adult.

Chandler further said the officer did not see the child’s parent during the initial contact, who was located at a nearby business shortly after. After that, Latonya was advised that her son would receive a Youth Court referral for the incident.

“Under these circumstances, it was an error in judgment for us to transport the child to the police station since the mother was present at that time as a reasonable alternative,” said Chandler.

Following the incident, the Eason family decided to sue the police department. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Mississippi, alleges a slew of charges against the city of Senatobia, its police chief Chandler, the arresting officer, and four unnamed officers.

The charges include excessive force, intentional infliction of emotional distress, failure to train and supervise, false arrest, and malicious prosecution.

According to the lawsuit, the officer who saw Quantavious urinating did not apprehend him, another officer arrested the child, who was held in a jail cell for up to an hour.

Carlos Moore, the family's attorney, highlighted the racial undertones of the arrest at a news conference. "I'm 99.99 percent sure that had this been a young boy who happened to be white ... he would have never been arrested," Moore asserted.

He emphasized the undue hardship faced by Quantavious and Latonya for a trivial and natural act, underscoring the absence of a public restroom at the location.

Moore further said that Quantavious and his mother, “have suffered like no other ... for doing something so commonplace.” He explained that the student did not expose himself and instead, did what any child would have done in his situation.

Following the arrest, Quantavious was charged in youth court with being a child in need of supervision. He was subjected to probation, during which he had to check in with a probation officer once a month for three months.

Additionally, he was tasked with writing a two-page report about Kobe Bryant, as ordered by Tate County Youth Court Judge Rusty Harlow in December 2023. Fortunately, the youth court petition was dismissed by Harlow in early February 2024.

Meanwhile, Chandler acknowledged the mishandling of the situation. "The officer’s decisions violated our written policy and went against our prior training on how to deal with these situations," he admitted in a statement on the department's Facebook page.

This led to the termination of one officer and disciplinary action against another, alongside mandatory juvenile training for the department staff. The Eason family's lawsuit seeks $2 million in damages and a jury trial, aiming to rectify the injustices they claim to have endured. The incident has reportedly sparked outrage online.

In another story, the police raided the wrong house and used explosive flash bangs not knowing there was a seventeen-month-old boy inside. The child had to be hospitalized as a result.