Seven African-American motorists have joined a federal class action suit filed against state police over the alleged practice of making race-based traffic stops along Interstate 95 in Maryland, the American Civil Liberties Union announced yesterday.

The three women and four men joined 11 plaintiffs in a suit filed June 4 by the state and national ACLU in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

The suit alleges troopers used race-based profiling in drug searches along I-95 from 1992 through last year.

The ACLU organizations were joined by the Maryland State Conference of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Branches, which contends that the practice is common.

Col. David B. Mitchell, state police superintendent, has denied the allegation, saying the agency "has not, does not and will not ever condone the use of race-based profiling."

Pub Date: 10/09/98