GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland Police Department, two of its officers, and the town of Guilderland have been named by the mother of a biracial teenager in a civil-rights lawsuit that seeks millions of dollars in damages.

In the March 27 complaint, Alicia Crandall claims that, in March 2023, Guilderland police officers Barak Strock and Carl Duda physically forced her biracial teenager, identified in court documents as LY, and two other Black minors onto a bus at Crossgates Mall, ordered the driver to lock the doors, and directed the bus to leave, all without evidence of any criminal activity.

The suit makes 10 claims — for false arrest, unlawful seizure, false imprisonment, assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, excessive force, failure to train/supervise, and failure to intervene — and seeks $1 million in damages for each cause of action. 

All defendants named in the suit declined to comment. Neither Crandall nor her lawyers, Jasper Millis and William Martin, responded to a request for comment. 

According to the complaint, all three teens walked from the Café Court entrance through the parking lot to the “[ap]proximate location of the bus stop in the area of Burlington Coat Factory” to speak with friends who had previously been approached by police. 

“After speaking with their friends, and with no evidence that the minors had committed a criminal offense, LY and the other two minors were rushed by officers Strock and Duda,” according to the complaint. “The officers were yelling for the minors to get onto the bus.”

LY told the officers her mother was inside the mall and asked to call her on her cell phone, the complaint states, adding that her request was denied.

Then, the filing states, “without any evidence of any crime committed by either LY or the minor friends that she was with, the defendant police officers then started to accuse LY and her minor friends of engaging in criminal activity. Defendant Strock pushed the minor Plaintiff toward Defendant Duda.

“Defendant Duda,” who has since retired, “then put his hands on LY by grabbing her, trying to force her on the bus, despite LY’s assertions that her mother was inside of the mall, and placing LY in a physical restraint in order to achieve his means.

“The defendant police officers forced LY and her minor friends onto the bus, then used their authority to demand that the doors be shut and locked and ordered the bus driver not to let LY and her minor friends off of the bus until the bus arrived at Walmart, approximately one mile away. 

“While on the bus LY attempted to get off of the bus when defendant Strock stepped into the bus and pushed LY multiple times in order to prevent LY from getting off of the bus. Strock threatened to place LY into handcuffs if she were to get off of the bus.”

The complaint goes on to claim that, as the bus doors closed, the officers could be heard on a recording calling the minors “bastards” and, when a civilian bystander questioned the officers’ conduct, they responded that the minors “had no parents.”

None of the minors were ever charged with a crime, the filing claims. 

The complaint goes on to claim that the Guilderland Police Department has since admitted Duda and Strock’s conduct was “wrong and uncalled for.”