Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, is in the news again. This time in connection with a federal lawsuit she filed against the Columbus police officers “involved in her arrest at Sirens in July 2018.” The suit that Daniels filed against four Columbus vice officers, is seeking $2 million or more in damages.According to the lawsuit, Daniels claims her civil rights were violated on July 2011 by “vice unit Officers Shana Keckley, Whitney Lancaster, Mary Praither and Steven Rosser.” The day of the arrest, Daniels “had been performing at Sirens, a strip club on Cleveland Avenue.” Shortly after her performance, Daniels “was arrested and accused of violating a portion of Ohio law related to the improper touching of gentlemen’s club patrons by performers.”

Stormy Daniels in 2015; image courtesy of Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/

In addition to arresting Daniels, the officers also arrested two other women employed by Sirens, including Brittany Walters and Miranda Panda.Eventually, the charges against Daniels and the other two women were dropped by Zach Klein, the Columbus City Attorney. His office has also “ceased prosecuting the cases.”Why is Daniels targeting the officers in her case, though? Well, according to her suit, Daniels believes she was targeted by the officers “for political reasons.” She also believes the “division helped to cover up the motivations for the arrest.” Additionally, the suit states that two of the detectives involved in her arrest “arrest are registered Republicans and a third is a well-known supporter of Trump.” It also “cites emails from Keckley and social media postings purported to be from the officers.” As a result of her treatment and the actions of the officers involved, Daniels is requesting damages for “malicious prosecution, false arrest, civil conspiracy to violate her rights, abuse of process and defamation.” The suit further states:“By maliciously releasing false statements to public newspapers and broadcasters and on social media platforms strongly implying Ms. Clifford was engaged in immoral conduct ... defendants defamed Ms. Clifford, causing injury to her reputation and exposing her to contempt, ridicule, shame, and disgrace in the community.”The suit itself was filed by local attorney’s Daniel Sabol and Chase Mallory. Michael Avenatti is also mentioned as an attorney in the case. When commenting on the incident, Avenatti said that “Ohio is not a police state,” and added that “he considers it a serious issue when police abuse their power.” He also said the “police division is not named as a defendant because of legal reasons surrounding immunity for police departments, and it is routine in civil rights cases to name only the officers.”The Division of Police has yet to comment on the pending litigation.

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Stormy Daniels files lawsuit against Columbus police vice officersAfter 2018 arrest, Stormy Daniels files lawsuit against Columbus police vice officers