A woman in southern Michigan alleges a police officer slammed her onto the ground, knocking her unconscious while handcuffed in jail.
CBS News reports Tiffany McNeil filed a lawsuit claiming a police officer at the Branch County Jail used excessive force in an encounter at the jail. Police state that McNeil was resisting arrest and moving towards the officer, who eventually took her down. However, the lawsuit says surveillance footage would show otherwise, implicating the department of falsities.
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Dramatic footage shows the officer in question, holding McNeil with her face pressed against a wall. Subsequently, the officer then pulls her from the wall and throws her, face-first, onto the ground as other officers stand nearby and watch.
When an officer lifts up McNeil’s head, blood can be seen on her head and the ground. She then lays motionless as officers attend to her wound.
Police reports state McNeil refused to “remain standing” and “used her weight to push herself off the wall with her chest and turned toward” an officer, who then forced him to take her down, according to the lawsuit that alleged police had lied about the circumstances.
After the incident, McNeil received 17 stitches and suffered a concussion, according to her attorney, Solomon Radner.
“It was absolutely egregious, disgusting, thug-like conduct,” Radner said. “You don’t expect that from police officers, and it shouldn’t be tolerated.”
McNeil was arrested after her husband had called police following an argument. Upon arrest, she was discovered to have a .21 blood alcohol level. She was charged with domestic violence and a felony charge for resisting a police officer.
She has pleaded no contest to the domestic violence charge and officials dropped the felony charge, Radner said.
McNeil said she cannot remember what happened at the jail, telling CBS, “I had no clue and nobody could tell me โ or would tell me.”