DENVER (AP) — Actor and comedian Marlon Wayans says he is being unfairly prosecuted for disturbing the peace over a dispute with an airline employee who he says targeted him because of his race.
Lawyers for Wayans, a Black man, made the allegations in a court filing Thursday in which they asked for the dismissal of the case related to a luggage dispute at the Denver airport.
Wayans was charged in June with disturbing the peace, a city violation, police said. According to court documents, a United Airlines gate agent told him he could not board a flight to Kansas City with three pieces of luggage. The gate agent apparently attempted to physically prevent Wayans from boarding the flight after he packed his luggage into two bags to comply with airline policy, the filing said. He boarded anyway and was later asked to leave the plane before departure.
While Wayans worked to rearrange his luggage, the gate agent continued to allow white passengers with three pieces of luggage to board the flight, according to court documents, which included stills from surveillance video of white passengers showing yellow arrows pointing to each of their pieces of luggage showed. About 140 people boarded the flight, many with three bags and oversized bags, in violation of the airline’s policy.
Wayans’ lawyers say the gate agent racially discriminated against him and that by continuing to file charges against him, Denver prosecutors are perpetuating that discrimination and denying him his right to equal protection under the law.
“The City of Denver’s position is an affront to constitutional and social justice principles,” Wayans’ lawyers said.
A phone message and an email to prosecutors were not immediately returned. United did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
In a statement from United in June in response to questions about Wayans’ fate, the airline said an unnamed customer “pushed past” an employee at the jet bridge and attempted to board the plane.
According to statements recorded on the police body camera and cited in the filing, the gate agent told officers that Wayans “pushed” or “shoved” him as the comedian boarded the plane, which Wayans’ lawyers said was a lie hold. They say Wayans may have touched the agent’s shoulders as he got in.
Police officers conducting the investigation doubted that a crime had been committed, the filing said, but the gate agent requested that the charges be pursued.