Lawsuit Accuses Bloomington Police of Profiling

Two more people have joined a federal lawsuit accusing police in Bloomington of racial profiling.

One of the new plaintiffs, William Hosea II, is a former city worker who says officers searched him, a city truck and a pothole he had just filled for drugs.

The other new plaintiff is Eric Tapley. He alleges police targeted him in five illegal traffic stops starting in 2011.

The (Bloomington) Pantagraph reports that a jury acquitted Tapley of resisting a police officer, a charge filed after one of the stops.

They are now part of a federal civil rights action filed against the city and officers in September by Anthony Johnson.

Peter Jennetten, the city's attorney, says accusations that the black men were stopped because of their race are without merit.