Posted on 05/15/2012 8:12:59 AM PDT by Altariel
DECATUR, Ga. —
Channel 2 Action News has learned a DeKalb County police officer is under criminal investigation for allegedly kicking a pregnant woman in the stomach, then charging her with obstruction of a police officer.
Records show the department never investigated the incident and five supervising officers signed off on the officer's actions.
"I was upset because I couldn't believe an officer would kick me, with my child in my stomach," Raven Dozier told investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer.
Dozier was nearly nine months pregnant and helping to calm down her brother who was arguing with police. They used a Taser on him, and she cried out.
That's when Officer Jerad Wheeler used what he described in his report as "a front push-kick to the abdomen, as he was taught to do at the academy."
"What kind of a human being kicks a pregnant woman? I mean, forget whether or not it is a police officer that is supposedly protecting people," Dozier's attorney Mark Bullman said.
Dozier filed a complaint with the DeKalb police department's internal affairs unit, but it was never investigated. Instead, four supervisors and an internal affairs detective signed off that Wheeler's use of force met policy.
"He was not, he had no reason to do that, and for a higher authority to say that he is OK, his boss is wrong too," Dozier said.
Fleischer filed an open records request and found two more use-of-force complaints against Wheeler within the last nine months. In all three cases, the victims were not the focus of the original police incident.
In September 2011, a 53-year-old woman said Wheeler twisted her arm behind her back and pushed her face down in the patrol car. The woman's daughter had just been in a car accident and she had gone to the scene to help with her young grandchildren.
In January 2012, a family complained after Wheeler shot their dog while he was on a chain inside their garage. Wheeler had responded to the wrong address.
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Posted: 7:20 p.m. Tuesday, May 8, 2012 DeKalb officer investigated after allegedly kicking pregnant woman in stomach
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Officer Jerad Wheeler Officer Jerad Wheeler Related View Larger Raven Dozier photo Raven Dozier said Officer Jerad Wheeler kicked her in the stomach while she was pregnant, then charged her with obstruction of a police officer. View Larger Raven Dozier photo Picture shows the bruise after Dozier was kicked in the stomach. View Larger Raven Dozier photo Raven Dozier while she was pregnant. Sponsored Links
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By Jodie Fleischer
DECATUR, Ga. —
Channel 2 Action News has learned a DeKalb County police officer is under criminal investigation for allegedly kicking a pregnant woman in the stomach, then charging her with obstruction of a police officer.
Records show the department never investigated the incident and five supervising officers signed off on the officer's actions.
"I was upset because I couldn't believe an officer would kick me, with my child in my stomach," Raven Dozier told investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer.
Dozier was nearly nine months pregnant and helping to calm down her brother who was arguing with police. They used a Taser on him, and she cried out.
That's when Officer Jerad Wheeler used what he described in his report as "a front push-kick to the abdomen, as he was taught to do at the academy."
"What kind of a human being kicks a pregnant woman? I mean, forget whether or not it is a police officer that is supposedly protecting people," Dozier's attorney Mark Bullman said.
Dozier filed a complaint with the DeKalb police department's internal affairs unit, but it was never investigated. Instead, four supervisors and an internal affairs detective signed off that Wheeler's use of force met policy.
"He was not, he had no reason to do that, and for a higher authority to say that he is OK, his boss is wrong too," Dozier said.
Fleischer filed an open records request and found two more use-of-force complaints against Wheeler within the last nine months. In all three cases, the victims were not the focus of the original police incident.
In September 2011, a 53-year-old woman said Wheeler twisted her arm behind her back and pushed her face down in the patrol car. The woman's daughter had just been in a car accident and she had gone to the scene to help with her young grandchildren.
In January 2012, a family complained after Wheeler shot their dog while he was on a chain inside their garage. Wheeler had responded to the wrong address.
In both cases, the department justified Wheeler's actions and exonerated him.
"It's showing that there is an ongoing pattern and practice of attempting to clear officers of clearly illegal, unconstitutional, and improper conduct," Bullman said.
Wheeler charged Dozier with obstruction of an officer.
In his report, he said she was coming toward him in an aggressive manner that it was very dark, she was wearing a large shirt, and he couldn't tell she was pregnant.
But workers at the DeKalb County Jail recognized it immediately, and refused accept Dozier. She had an emergency C-section two weeks later, and now baby Levi is doing well.
"I believe that something should be done. Men go to jail every day for hitting women and it's not OK just because he is a police officer," said Dozier.
"My hope is that with this and other cases, things will change at the DeKalb Police Department, that it is no longer possible for officers to commit felonies against citizens that have committed no crime whatsoever," Bullman said.
A DeKalb police representative did not want to comment on how the department handled this case.
Dozier says the kick bruised her midsection. The child apparently was not injured. The boy was born healthy two weeks later by emergency C-section, which doctors performed when the baby defecated in the womb.
The DeKalb County Police Department says the officer didn’t do anything wrong. Officer Jerad Wheeler reported Dozier was coming toward him in an aggressive manner. In the darkness with Dozier wearing a large shirt, he says he didn’t know that she was pregnant.
Dozier was originally charged with obstruction, but that charge has been dropped.
http://www.wsbradio.com/news/news/pregnant-woman-says-dekalb-cop-kicked-her-stomach/nNzGz/
Never want to pass up an opportunity to shoot a dog.
Decatur law enforcement has a pretty violent legacy.
Former DeKalb county Georgia sheriff convicted of murdering successor
This guy needs a serious attitude adjustment. I suggest 2 X 4's.
Clearly it didn’t take him long to transfer animal cruelty to cruelty against people.
I hope that the baby will continue to be all right and no long term health problems will manifest themselves as a result of the kick.
Can a officer be charged with wanton destruction of private property if he shoots a dog in an unjustifiable manner?
This guy has some real issues.
He describes his action and thusly justifies so:
The kick was a front push kick to the abdomen as I was taught to do in the academy.
Sure you were Paleo-man.
This guy has issues and needs to have subscriptions cancelled along with a real good attitude adjustment.
I suspect the removal of his shield would temper his superiority complex as immunity would be removed and he would be just a civilian who would take an azz beating like any other guy.
If a cop did that to my dog seeing the inside of a courtroom would not be In his or her future.
“... could that problem be a result of trauma resulting from the kick or “push kick”.
Fetal defecation in the womb is not normal. The meconium (the first greenish/yellowish stool) is normally passed after birth. However, a baby can defecate in the womb. Baby number 2 did that when I was in labor (albeit it was a difficult labor with lots of other strange things going on). I asked my OB why it happened in my case and he did say it was because of the traumatic birth. So, yes... I think in this case it could have been the result of the trauma but probably difficult to prove. The most frightening part in my incident was as soon as she was born, there were about six neonatal specialists that put a tube down her throat to look into her lungs (to see if she had inhaled any). Thank goodness she didn’t because that can cause another set of life threatening problem.
Especially his subscriptions to various S&M journals?
Maybe they should reduce his steroid dosage, too.
Everyone from the Metro Atlanta area knows about the DeKalb police. This is not new.
What I meant by the “normal” comment is that the baby defecated through the anus, rather than passing waste through the umbilical cord; it pooped in the manner which those of us who are born consider “normal”.
Mea culpa. I should have been clearer.
Only waste molecules dissolved in the blood will exit via the umbilical cord (carbon dioxide, protein by-products, etc.). The meconium is swallowed cells from the amniotic fluid, and intestinal secretions. There’s just no way you could prove that the kick caused the baby to release the meconium.
The danger of meconium in the amniotic fluid is that it might be inhaled when the baby is born and cause lung damage, and may indicate that the baby is in distress before birth, although fetal monitoring should help clear that up.
When there was meconium in the amniotic fluid with my third, the midwife called in the neonatal resuscitation team to stand by and they snatched him away as soon as he came out and suctioned him at once and checked him over very thoroughly - scary but he was just fine. Just an early pooper.
... she was wearing a large shirt, and he couldn’t tell she was pregnant.
Aren’t these called ‘maternity clothes’?
Also, he was able to taze her brother, despite the darkness, yet unable to tell she was heavy with child?
I think his nose grew a little after telling that one.
“Mea culpa. I should have been clearer”.
I misread. Either way, the word for the day is meconium. LOL!
This guy has some real issues. However, I noticed he doesn’t like to pick fights with someone that could actually win. He seems to like to pick fights that he can’t lose. >P> He kicks a pregnant lady, slams a 53 year old lady, and shoots a chained dog.
“”What kind of a human being kicks a pregnant woman? I mean, forget whether or not it is a police officer that is supposedly protecting people,” Dozier’s attorney Mark Bullman said. “
The kind who has been desensitized by planned parenthood to believe that the baby is not a human life and that “mothers” and the word mother is obscene.
You are exactly right about that.
You are exactly right
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