Posted on 12/18/2008 8:47:12 PM PST by Daffynition
It was a little before 8 at night when the breaker went out at Emily Milburn's home in Galveston. She was busy preparing her children for school the next day, so she asked her 12-year-old daughter, Dymond, to pop outside and turn the switch back on.
As Dymond headed toward the breaker, a blue van drove up and three men jumped out rushing toward her. One of them grabbed her saying, "You're a prostitute. You're coming with me."
Dymond grabbed onto a tree and started screaming, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy." One of the men covered her mouth. Two of the men beat her about the face and throat.
As it turned out, the three men were plain-clothed Galveston police officers who had been called to the area regarding three white prostitutes soliciting a white man and a black drug dealer.
All this is according to a lawsuit filed in Galveston federal court by Milburn against the officers. The lawsuit alleges that the officers thought Dymond, an African-American, was a hooker due to the "tight shorts" she was wearing, despite not fitting the racial description of any of the female suspects. The police went to the wrong house, two blocks away from the area of the reported illegal activity, Milburn's attorney, Anthony Griffin, tells Hair Balls.
After the incident, Dymond was hospitalized and suffered black eyes as well as throat and ear drum injuries.
Three weeks later, according to the lawsuit, police went to Dymond's school, where she was an honor student, and arrested her for assaulting a public servant. Griffin says the allegations stem from when Dymond fought back against the three men who were trying to take her from her home. The case went to trial, but the judge declared it a mistrial on the first day, says Griffin. The new trial is set for February.
"I think we'll be okay," says Griffin. "I don't think a jury will find a 12-year-old girl guilty who's just sitting outside her house. Any 12-year-old attacked by three men and told that she's a prostitute is going to scream and yell for Daddy and hit back and do whatever she can. She's scared to death."
Since the incident more than two years ago, Dymond regularly suffers nightmares in which police officers are raping and beating her and cutting off her fingers, according to the lawsuit. Griffin says he expects to enter mediation with the officers in early 2009 to resolve the lawsuit.
We've got calls in to the officers' lawyer; we'll let you know if we hear something.
Update: This is from the officers' lawyer, William Helfand:
Both the daughter and the father were arrested for assaulting a peace officer. "The father basically attacked police officers as they were trying to take the daughter into custody after she ran off."
Also, "The city has investigated the matter and found that the conduct of the police officers was appropriate under the circumstances," Helfand says. "It's unfortunate that sometimes police officers have to use force against people who are using force against them. And the evidence will show that both these folks violated the law and forcefully resisted arrest."
If that much is true a lawyer isn't the kind of professional I would be hiring.
Assuming I didn't want to do the clean up myself.
...the three men were plain-clothed Galveston police officers who had been called to the area regarding three white prostitutes soliciting a white man and a black drug dealer.
I wonder if the police put forward this part of the story? If so their story stinks from the get go. Drug dealers are reporting prostitutes now? If the Milburn's made up even half of this story they need to be writing scripts for cable shows. One does wonder why Je$$e Jackson and Al Sharpton aren't in on this but perhaps Dymond the honor student and her father don't fit the Victim Card profile well enough.
Daffynition, thanks for pinging to an update. It sounds like you have done a lot of work digging into this story. This is the kind of independent research and reporting it will take to put the final nail in the MSMs coffin. The major news sources these days are the least credible.
Anyone in plain clothes assaulting my child in my front yard won't be able to tell their 'side' of anything.
They'll be dead.
Period.
L
Thanks TE ... it’s almost impossible to know what is true anymore ...from any source. Makes me want to head for the hills and be off the grid.
Should the main aspects of this story be true, I hope the family sees justice done.
I understand completely ...I know if this happened on my property, there would be blood spilled.
Agreed on all points. If the truth of any story will ever be known it will be from more digging and more pressure not less. Thanks again for posting this.
They are actually charging this girl with assaulting these big, brave men who beat her in her yard for no reason.
Setting aside this guy's hyperbole he makes a great point. Four grown men with police training (I assume Galveston trains its police) are alleging a twelve year old girl assaulted and injured them?
Oh, that's right, her father and her puppy assisted her in assaulting the four armed officers. /s
I think those cops may need some advanced training in the definition of assault.
LOL, get your hand out of your pants!
I am still trying to understand, or what did I miss?
Well said.
Agree with TE. Keep on it! :)
Way to go police!
Maybe there’s a ten year old these brave guys can beat up next!
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