Inset: Cavinitri White being arrested on June 5 in Shreveport, La., for “unlivable conditions” and child neglect, a charge that was later dropped (KSLA/YouTube). Background: The apartment building where Cavinitri White was staying and putting in pest control requests, which allegedly fell on deaf ears (KSLA/YouTube).
A “single mother of three” reportedly called police in Louisiana for a domestic dispute over a PlayStation and wound up behind bars for child neglect after an officer found a cockroach infestation, which was deemed “unsanitary and unsafe.”
Now the mom is pursuing legal action after evidence was presented to prosecutors showing how she had asked building management repeatedly to help with the pest problem — to no avail — leading to her charges being dropped.
“I started seeing them coming out of vents, and out of outlets, and I remember inboxing them [saying], “Hey, can we get some pest control over here?'” said Cavinitri White, the mom, in an interview with local CBS affiliate KSLA last week about her June arrest in Shreveport.
“They kept coming out and spraying different areas but not spraying my area,” White alleged. “I’m explaining to the officer what’s going on with my apartment, what’s going on with my living situation, and he’s like ‘Ok.’ And I’m thinking that he understands at that point.”
The officer, however, did not understand and took White into custody that day. She reportedly spent six days in jail and “her children were taken,” according to her lawyers.
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“On June 5, patrol officers responded to a domestic disturbance at the Village Square Apartments involving a dispute over a PlayStation,” the Shreveport Police Department said in a press release.
“Inside the apartment, officers located three juvenile children — ages 4, 3, and 1 — living with their mother, identified as Cavinitri White,” the release alleged. “Officers and investigators reported the apartment was heavily infested with cockroaches. The infestation was observed on nearly every surface, including furniture, kitchen cabinets, and inside the refrigerator. Roaches were also seen coming through holes in the walls, further compromising the health and safety of the environment.”
Screenshots provided to KSLA by White and her legal team allegedly show maintenance requests that White had been sending to management, asking for pest control to come to the apartment on multiple occasions. Her first maintenance request was allegedly submitted on Jan. 21; another was submitted Jan. 23; and another on April 29, KSLA reports.
“Hello apartment needs some type of pest control roaches are coming through cracks in the ceiling and vents self pest control is not working,” said one of the alleged requests.
SPD officials reported at the time of White’s arrest that they had probable cause to arrest her because her children were also allegedly seen wearing dirty clothes and soiled diapers. The Caddo Parish District Attorney’s Office, however, refused to pursue the case.
Local lawmakers voiced public criticism of the City of Shreveport and the police department, which are being targeted by White’s lawyers, over the incident after body camera footage was released showing how it all allegedly went down.
“I was thinking that doors would be falling down, I was expecting to see stuff all over the place, stains on the wall,” State Rep. Steven Jackson told KSLA last week.
“The place looked …. intact,” he said. “It looks lived in with three kids, but it at least looks intact.”
Jackson condemned the SPD officer who initially reported the roach problem, saying he was “very disturbed” by the body camera video of White’s arrest. The mom can be seen trying to explain what was going on with management, but the officer allegedly wasn’t listening, per Jackson.
“This was a situation where this young lady — you can look at the video … she is pleading her case,” the state lawmaker said. “She’s going through her phone where she’s trying to talk to the landlord and the officer takes the phone. He’s like, ‘I don’t care.'”
White’s lead attorney, Malik Shabazz, says the incident “should’ve been handled in a much more civil and humane way” than what was seen on video.
“We are pursuing legal action on her behalf against the City of Shreveport, against the Shreveport Police Department and against the individual officer in this action because Ms. Calvinitri White should never have been arrested,” Shabazz said during a press conference last Wednesday. “It’s deeply offensive to civil rights and human rights for a mother … to be hauled off to jail for a pest control problem. I mean this is unprecedented.”
Speaking in a statement in July after White’s charges were dropped, Caddo Parish District Attorney James Stewart Sr. explained why his office refused to pursue the case, saying: “We were provided proof that Ms. White, an employed single mother of three small children, submitted three requests for service in the year 2025 to her apartment manager regarding insect problems inside the apartment. No drugs or firearms were found inside the apartment, nor any injuries on the children.”
White told KSLA that the entire thing has left her with a “feeling of sickness” and anger.
“I should not have been wrongfully jailed, I should not have been lied on … and I should not have been put in the media as if I am a bad mother when I do the most that I can for my children,” she blasted. “I didn’t deserve that.”
White’s team, which includes Shabazz and the social services supporter Humanity 2020 Group, has said that it would be willing to stop pursuing legal action if city officials and the police department can own up to what happened and take responsibility. But they allegedly have not done that yet.
“The unsafe and hazardous conditions that plagued the apartment complex where Ms. White and children resided, were due to no fault of her own, and this case demands urgent scrutiny of law enforcement misconduct,” a Humanity 2020 statement to KSLA says. “Charges were later dropped, yet the trauma and disruption remain.”
