The state trooper who arrested a city LGBT official has been placed on restricted duty during an internal investigation

After the controversial arrest of a top Philadelphia official and her husband by Pennsylvania State Police over the weekend, the agency on Monday announced that the trooper involved has been placed on restricted duty and said it is expediting the rollout of body cameras for troopers in Philadelphia.

Celena Morrison, the city’s executive director of the Office of LGBT Affairs, and her husband, Darius McLean, were arrested Saturday morning after a heated confrontation on I-76 that began after a traffic stop. Police said the trooper pulled Morrison over for multiple vehicle code violations, including driving with an expired and suspended registration, before things escalated.

State police are conducting a full investigation into the stop and encounter that followed, said Lt. Adam Reed, state police spokesperson.

During that investigation, the trooper, whom the agency declined to name, is on restricted duty status, meaning he will not be on patrol, Reed said.

State police said Morrison, 51, was pulled over for driving a gray Infiniti sedan with an expired and suspended registration, headlights that were not illuminated in the rain, illegally tinted windows, and driving too close to another car. Reed declined to say when the registration had expired and why it was suspended, saying it is a PennDot business record and cannot, by law, be shared publicly.

Shortly after the trooper and Morrison stopped the side of the road, McLean, driving a green Dodge sedan, pulled up behind them. The trooper approached McLean, and state police said he “became verbally combative” then “refused multiple lawful orders.” The trooper then attempted to arrest him, and during that process, state police said Morrison attempted to intervene. She was also arrested.

McLean, 35, is the chief operating officer of the Philadelphia-based William Way Community Center and director of the Arcila-Adams Trans Resource Center, and Morrison, 51, has been the city’s executive director of the Office of LGBT Affairs since 2020.

Video of the encounter, taken by Morrison, was shared online soon after and raised questions about the incident and arrest.

The video did not capture the events leading up to McLean’s arrest but started as McLean was lying on the shoulder of the highway, begging the trooper to let him go.

“I work for the mayor! I work for the mayor!” Morrison yelled to the trooper at one point.

As the trooper turns to arrest Morrison, the video pans toward the sky, and at one point, she can be heard saying, “He just punched me.”

Reed said state police moved to charge the couple with resisting arrest, obstruction of justice, disorderly conduct, and summary traffic citations. But the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office declined the charges, and Morrison and McLean were released from custody Saturday evening.

Jane Roh, spokesperson for the DA’s office, said no charging decisions have been made, but that officials are investigating all aspects of the incident.

State Police Commissioner Col. Christopher L. Paris said during an unrelated budget hearing in the Pennsylvania state House on Monday that he is “concerned by the issues that have been raised” by Saturday’s incident. He said an internal affairs investigation is underway and results will be forwarded to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

But investigators will be missing what’s often an important piece of evidence: body camera footage.

Paris said the trooper involved in the stop was not outfitted with a body camera because, despite funding for every trooper to have one, cameras have not yet been rolled out in Philadelphia.

Lt. Col. George L. Bivens, a deputy commissioner, said troopers in parts of south-central and southwestern Pennsylvania already wear body cameras, and that state police would expedite the rollout to distribute body cameras to troopers in Philadelphia over the next eight weeks.

Paris said delays in outfitting all state police troopers with body cameras were due to “logistics and making the IT work,” but that Philadelphia would be the next priority area.

”Within three to four weeks, you will start to see them,” Bivens said, “and three to four weeks after, they all will have them.”

The Pennsylvania State Troopers Association, which represents 4,300 active and retired state troopers, declined to comment on the investigation or restriction of the officer involved, saying only that it is aware of what happened.

“This morning, and every day, Pennsylvania state troopers go to work prepared to lay down their lives for their fellow citizens,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “As our Call to Honor states, these brave men and women do not swerve from the path of duty.”