Reeves filed the federal lawsuit within one week. The complaint alleged violations of Terrance's Fourth Amendment rights: illegal trespass, warrantless search, and unlawful seizure. It alleged violations of his Fourteenth Amendment rights: denial of equal protection based on race. It named Hargrove individually and the police department for maintaining policies that enabled Hargrove's behavior for 20 years.
The lawsuit also included detailed analysis of Hargrove's career. Reeves had obtained his personnel file through discovery, and what he found was a two-decade pattern of racist policing that the department had systematically ignored: 42 complaints over 20 years; 37 involved allegations of racial profiling against Hispanic or Black citizens. Hargrove had a pattern of entering property without warrants, demanding ID from people engaged in lawful activity, and making arrests for obstruction when people asserted their rights.
Reeves dug deeper into each complaint, building a comprehensive picture of Hargrove's pattern. The complaints weren't random; they clustered in wealthy neighborhoods where Hargrove seemed particularly offended by the presence of minorities.
One case from six years earlier was eerily similar to Terrance's. Hargrove had arrested a Black businessman named Isaiah Chambers for trespassing while Chambers was mowing his own lawn in a wealthy neighborhood. Chambers had been wearing old jeans and a T-shirt, pushing his own lawnmower across his own property, when Hargrove pulled up and demanded to know what he was doing there. Chambers explained he lived there, that he was mowing his own lawn. Hargrove demanded ID. Chambers asked why he needed to show ID while standing on his own property. Hargrove arrested him for suspicious behavior and failure to comply with a lawful order. Chambers spent four hours in custody before his wife came home with the property deed and mortgage documents to prove he owned the house. Hargrove never apologized. Chambers filed a complaint describing Hargrove's assumption that a Black man in this neighborhood must be hired help or a criminal, not the homeowner. The complaint was dismissed as unsubstantiated.
Another case involved Hargrove searching the car of Dr. Lucia Navarro, a pediatrician, during a traffic stop for a broken taillight. Hargrove had demanded to search her vehicle. Dr. Navarro, who knew her rights, refused consent. Hargrove claimed he smelled marijuana—a claim Dr. Navarro denied, as she had never used marijuana in her life. Hargrove searched anyway, tearing through her car while she sat on the curb, humiliated as her neighbors drove past and stared. He found nothing: no marijuana, no contraband, nothing illegal. He wrote her a warning for the taillight and left. Dr. Navarro filed a complaint; it was dismissed.
A Hispanic homeowner named Mateo Solis recounted Hargrove demanding to see proof he owned his house when Solis was painting his fence. Hargrove had pulled up, watched Solis painting for a few minutes, then approached and asked if he had permission to be there. Solis, confused, said he was the homeowner. Hargrove demanded documentation. Solis went inside to get his property deed, and when he returned, Hargrove was walking around his yard, looking in windows, checking his garage. When Solis objected, Hargrove threatened to arrest him for interfering with an investigation. Solis provided the deed, Hargrove left without apology, and the complaint Solis filed was marked unfounded.
The most disturbing case involved a teenager. Sixteen-year-old Javier Ortega had been walking home from school through a wealthy neighborhood where his grandmother lived. Hargrove stopped him, demanding to know what he was doing in the neighborhood. Javier explained he was walking to his grandmother's house. Hargrove didn't believe him. He detained the teenager on the sidewalk for 30 minutes, calling the grandmother to verify the story before finally letting him go. Javier's parents filed a complaint describing their son's terror at being detained by police while doing nothing wrong. The complaint resulted in Hargrove receiving "additional training on community policing."
Pattern after pattern: Hargrove seeing people of color in spaces his racism told him they didn't belong, using his authority to harass them, and facing no real consequences when they complained.
Reeves also discovered something that explained how Hargrove had operated with impunity for so long: every single one of Hargrove's 42 complaints had been investigated by the same internal affairs officer, Sergeant Elias Drummond, who had recently retired.