photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Louis G. Galloway Jr.

Jurors on Wednesday acquitted a Lawrence man who was accused of barricading himself in a car during a traffic stop and refusing to obey orders while police were trying to arrest him on a warrant.

The man, Louis George Galloway Jr., 33, had been charged with one felony count of interference with law enforcement in the incident, which took place over the course of about an hour on April 23 in the 100 block of North Michigan Street. As the Journal-World reported, at one point police fired a canister of pepper spray into the car, in addition to blocking the car from moving using spike strips and an armored vehicle.

photo by: Lawrence Police Department

Lawrence police barricaded a suspect in a car using spike strips and an armored truck during an hour-long standoff on April 23, 2023, in the 100 block of N. Michigan St. Louis Galloway Jr. was arrested after police deployed “OC gas” into the vehicle and forced their way into the car.

At the trial on Wednesday in Douglas County District Court, Galloway’s attorney, Hatem Chahine, argued that there were communication issues between the officers and Galloway that night. He said that Galloway, who was in the passenger seat, would have exited the car when the officers ordered him to, but that the passenger side door and window weren’t functional and wouldn’t open. Chahine said that Galloway tried to yell that the door was broken, but that in police body camera footage of the incident, officers could be heard saying that they couldn’t understand him.

Chahine also said that Galloway was too afraid to climb over the driver’s seat to get out, and Galloway himself took the stand at one point and testified that he thought he would be shot or attacked by a police dog if he made a wrong move.

Galloway testified that he tried to comply with officers but that their commands were contradictory. He said the officers would tell him to exit the vehicle, but when he tried to move to exit the car they would instead tell him not to move and to put his hands up.

The situation got worse, he testified, when police fired pepper spray into the car. He said his girlfriend’s pregnant dog was also in the car, and that the dog became scared and agitated and climbed into his lap.

Eventually, Galloway testified, police smashed the window of the car and tried to pull him out, but he was trying to climb out at the same time. He said that he struggled to get out while the dog was in his lap, but that once he got out, he did not resist arrest or try to run from police.

The state, represented by Assistant District Attorney Adam Carey, argued that body camera video showed Galloway trying to pull himself back into the vehicle after police had grabbed his arm, which Carey said constituted resisting arrest.

The jury deliberated for two hours before returning the not guilty verdict.

Even though Galloway was acquitted on this charge, he will still be serving a prison sentence for a drug possession conviction. The warrant officers stopped him for in April was issued after he failed to appear for his sentencing in that case; once he was arrested, he was sentenced for the drug conviction to 20 months in prison, according to court records.

Galloway’s history also includes three convictions from 2011 in Douglas County — misdemeanor convictions for obstruction and assault on a law enforcement officer, and a felony conviction for battery on a law enforcement officer. In the latter case, he was accused of throwing a “haymaker” punch and injuring the eye of a Lawrence police officer when officers tried to arrest him for a suspended driver’s license. A jury convicted him in that case, and he was sentenced to five years in prison.