5 years after Rock Hill police protests, fed judge dismisses lawsuit over arrest
Five years after protests erupted in Rock Hill against police tactics following a viral video arrest of two Black men, a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit one of the men filed against the officers involved.
Ricky Roderick Price claimed he was illegally pulled over in June 2021.
His brother, Travis Price, who went to the scene to collect Ricky Price’s belongings, was also taken to the ground by police. The arrests were captured by bystander video posted online that caused three days of protests in downtown Rock Hill.
U.S. District Court Judge Mary Geiger Lewis ruled Tuesday that Ricky Price offered no evidence the traffic stop was not legal. She agreed with a lower federal magistrate’s recommendation in 2025 that the lawsuit be dismissed.
Lewis wrote in her ruling that police had evidence that was “overwhelming” to stop Ricky Price for failing to signal, and the stop and arrest did not violate Price’s constitutional rights.
“A reasonable fact finder would be unable to find otherwise,” Lewis wrote in her ruling.
Her ruling ends the federal case. A South Carolina state court judge dismissed a similar lawsuit in York County civil court earlier this year.
Ricky Price was arrested on drug and weapon charges in 2021 that were dismissed months later after he spent weeks in jail. He filed the lawsuit in 2024 against the city of Rock Hill and officers. The city, which claimed in earlier court filings the officers were attacked first in the fight with Price, was already dismissed from the federal lawsuit last year, court records show.
Travis Price sued Rock Hill in a separate legal action and received a $500,000 settlement in 2023.
2021 protests received national attention
Video taken by a private person in the store parking lot on Willowbrook Avenue showed Ricky Price fighting with officers after Travis Price is slammed to the ground nearby. That video went viral and protesters filled downtown Rock Hill that night and for two nights afterward.
Rock Hill police wore riot gear and used shields to counter the protesters as coverage of the arrests and protests went national. Travis Price was also arrested on a charge of hindering police despite the onlooker and police videos showing he did not push officers. Prosecutors later released police body camera footage.
York County’s top prosecutor, Kevin Brackett, dropped the criminal charge against Travis Price about a week later. Investigators with the State Law Enforcement Division charged the officer who took Travis Price to the ground, Jonathan Moreno, with third-degree assault and battery.
Moreno, one of the defendants in Ricky Price’s federal lawsuit, was fired by the Rock Hill Police Department around the same time he was charged in 2021. Moreno was later acquitted in a criminal trial after a York County jury found him not guilty.
Moreno’s lawyer, Daniel C. Plyler, told The Herald on Wednesday the dismissal of Ricky Price’s civil lawsuit was the right ruling.
“We are confident that the Court’s decision was the correct decision and are happy that the matter is being dismissed,” Plyler said in a written statement. “The evidence clearly shows that Mr. Moreno did nothing wrong during his interactions with Ricky Price, and the Court’s decision supports that statement.”
Efforts to reach Ricky Price’s lawyer, Monier Abusaft, by phone Wednesday were not successful.
The Herald also reached out by email Wednesday to the Rock Hill police chief, city officials and the lawyers for the other officers but did not receive a response.
