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A Black attorney has been sentenced to a year of probation for a courtroom confrontation with deputies in San Bernardino, Calif., but he believes his only crime is being a man of color in a court.

Jaaye Person-Lynn, 38, says his legal woes began in January 2019, when he was racially profiled in court because he was wearing street clothes the day he attempted to change a hearing date for a client.

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Here’s more from TMZ:

Long story short … Person-Lynn says he dropped into court on his day off without a suit on, because he needed to change a hearing date for a client and thought he could do it quickly with the clerk. The Sheriff’s deputies inside the courtroom, however, stiff-armed him. Check out the footage —  you hear the female deputy ask who he is and what he wants. Person-Lynn tells her he wants to talk to the clerk, and eventually identifies himself as an attorney. Two deputies then escorted Person-Lynn out, and tried getting the case number for his client. When Person-Lynn threatens to take legal action against them for racially profiling him … that’s when things really went left.

Video footage of the incident starts without audio, but it kicks in as he is questioned by the deputy.

“He never asked me for an ID,” Person-Lynn said. “He never asked me for a business card. I have no problem showing it. I was attempting to show it.”

In video of the incident, the deputy is seen pushing Person-Lynn toward the gallery where the public sits during trials.

“I was not irate,” he said. “I did not escalate. It escalated when deputy Barrie got physical.”

Person-Lynn says he was tased and then arrested. A judge accused him of escalating the situation.

“Deputy Barrie has to respond to your escalation and moving you out of that area and you still attempted to go around him,” the judge said.

After sentencing at Rancho Cucamonga Superior courthouse, Person-Lynn spoke about the case.

“I stand on what I did that day,” he said. “Could I have done it differently? ‘Yes.’ Did it amount to a crime? ‘No.’”

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