Tuskegee coach hires civil rights attorneys after being handcuffed following 77-69 loss at Morehouse
Tuskegee University men's basketball coach Benjy Taylor has retained a team of prominent civil rights attorneys after he was handcuffed and escorted off the court following his team's 77-69 loss to Morehouse College on Saturday night.
Taylor hired nationally known civil rights attorney Harry Daniels, along with attorneys Gregory Reynald Williams and Gerald Griggs, after an incident that occurred immediately following the Division II HBCU matchup in Atlanta. Video of the encounter, recorded by fans and shared widely on social media, has gone viral and sparked national attention.
According to the attorneys, the incident began during the postgame handshake when players from Morehouse's football team allegedly entered the court and intermingled with Tuskegee players and parents. Taylor, concerned about what he viewed as aggressive behavior, asked an officer on the scene to remove the football players from the court.
Conference-mandated security protocols prohibit non-basketball personnel from being on the court during postgame activities, including the handshake line. A fan-recorded video shows football players high-fiving the basketball team as Taylor voices his concerns to an officer.
When Taylor approached the officer and again asked that the protocols be enforced in an effort to calm what he believed was an increasingly dangerous situation, the officer instead placed Taylor in handcuffs and escorted him off the court. Taylor was never charged with a crime.
"This would be bad for a police officer to treat anyone like this," Daniels said in a statement. "But to do it to a man like Coach Taylor, a highly respected professional and role model, to put him in handcuffs, humiliate him and treat him like a criminal in front of his team, his family and a gym full of fans is absolutely disgusting and they need to be held accountable."
Daniels said Taylor was acting to protect his players and deescalate the situation.
"Coach Taylor is a good man who did the right thing," Daniels said. "And this officer put him in chains for his troubles."
On Monday, the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference released a statement, saying that it determined that Morehouse College "did not satisfy the required safety standards for a host institution" in connection with crowd control.
The conference has fined Morehouse an undisclosed amount and has required the university to make corrective security measures.
Taylor has spent 35 years coaching basketball and has served as Tuskegee's head coach since 2019.
His attorneys said they are investigating all legal options, including the possibility of a civil lawsuit.