Posted on 06/03/2004 6:18:45 PM PDT by freepatriot32
Tanya Smith is sporting a broken left arm, and she says a South Bend police officer is to blame.
Police Chief Thomas Fautz said he has been reading reports of the incident, and so far he hasn't found any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the officers involved.
He said he cannot provide many details about the incident since it is an open investigation, and police policy keeps him from talking about it. He did confirm that the officer injured the woman.
Smith, a 25-year-old Elkhart resident, said she and a friend, Felicia Bradley, had gone to Benchwarmers early Sunday morning to join some friends.
They were met at the door by the owner and a security guard for Benchwarmers, Smith said. The men told them to wait outside for a few minutes while they dealt with an incident inside.
So that's what they did. They waited on the sidewalk outside of Benchwarmers. They said they have visited the bar before and been made to wait outside on other occasions, too.
Cpl. Jess Elliott, a South Bend police officer, was working in the downtown area that night. Smith said he approached and ordered her and Bradley to leave. He told them nobody else was going to be allowed inside the bar, she said.
Smith said she tried to explain that the men from Benchwarmers had instructed them to wait outside, but the officer didn't want to hear it. He ordered them again to leave.
"He was talking kind of rough to us,'' she said. "We asked what his problem was, and he said 'you're my (obscenity) problem.' ''
Bradley said she told the officer he didn't have to talk that way to them, but "he had a horrible attitude.'' She said she went to the door of Benchwarmers to see if the owner would come out to tell the officer that he had given the women permission to wait outside.
At that point, Bradley said, Elliott allegedly grabbed Smith and "was really roughing her up.'' She said she started to holler at the officer to let Smith go, but another officer came up and body-slammed her, knocking her down. Fautz identified that officer as Cpl. Keith Walker.
Smith, meanwhile, said she already had placed her arms behind her back to be handcuffed when Elliott grabbed her left arm and twisted it.
The humerus, the bone that connects the elbow to the shoulder, broke in two places, she said.
Smith said she was facedown on the ground with her hands cuffed behind her back when an officer fired a Taser weapon at her. The Taser delivers an electric shock that momentarily immobilizes a person. Smith has marks on her back where the Taser darts hit.
Roger Sartin Jr., a 25-year-old South Bend man, said he was downtown and witnessed the incident. He corroborated the women's story, saying he heard the men from Benchwarmers when they told Smith and Bradley to wait outside.
He said Smith was walking away when the officer grabbed her and yanked her arm behind her back. He said he heard a loud popping noise when the bone broke, and he saw the officer throw her to the ground. He said an officer fired a Taser gun at her while she already was handcuffed on the ground.
Sartin said none of the police officers talked to any witnesses, but instead tried to shoo the crowd away from the scene.
"They're going to cover for each other,'' Sartin said. "That's why they didn't take a report (from witnesses), because they knew he did wrong.''
Doneisha Jones, 20, of South Bend, also witnessed the incident.
She said Smith and Bradley were not doing anything wrong when the officer suddenly grabbed Smith and broke her arm.
"That was so wrong,'' Jones said. "We heard her bone pop out when they did it."
After the arm broke, Jones said, the officer threw Smith on the ground and someone fired a Taser at her.
"The police were laughing like it was a joke, like she was faking her arm being broke,'' Jones said.
Neither Sartin nor Jones had ever met Smith or Bradley before.
Jones said she thinks the incident was racist. Smith and Bradley are black, and the officers are white. Jones said officers tend to police Benchwarmers, which draws a mostly black crowd, more heavily than the nearby State Theatre, which draws a mostly white crowd.
After Smith was hurt, Jones said, it seemed to take a long time for the ambulance to arrive.
Smith claimed she lay on the ground for almost a half-hour before an ambulance arrived. Ambulance records show a dispatch time of 2:16 a.m., but Smith thinks that is wrong. She said she didn't even arrive at Benchwarmers until around 2:30 a.m.
Smith went to Memorial Hospital, where her arm was treated, then put in a sling. It was too swollen to set the bone, she said. That is to be done next week.
Police took her to jail after her treatment at the hospital, Smith said. Bradley had been taken to jail earlier. The women bonded out later that day.
Bradley went to a doctor on Tuesday for treatment of the injuries she said she suffered when she was knocked down by Cpl. Walker. A doctor's report refers to neck strain and costochondritis, an inflammation of the junction between the cartilage and ribs in her chest.
Chief Fautz acknowledged that Smith was injured while being arrested but said "there appears to be a logical explanation of how this injury occurred."
He would not elaborate, except to say the police reports indicate that Smith had some culpability in what happened to her. He was unaware of the witnesses' accounts of the incident.
"Right now the only version I have is what's on the police reports,'' the chief said.
If Smith and Bradley want to contest the reports, they can file a complaint with internal affairs, he said.
"We're certainly willing to hear her side of the story,'' Fautz said.
Smith is to appear June 10 in traffic and misdemeanor court, while Bradley has a June 17 court date. They were charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
In the meantime, Smith said, she will be off work for at least three months while her arm heals. She said she works as a caulker for a recreational vehicle plant in Goshen.
She is talking to an attorney about possibly filing a lawsuit against the police.
Nancy J. Sulok's columns appear on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays. You can reach her at nsulok@sbtinfo.com, or by writing c/o South Bend Tribune, 225 W. Colfax Ave., South Bend, IN 46626, telephone (574) 235-6234.
Now you are adding words to the article. Right. It doesn't say he was a suspect but he was. If your car is involved in a hit and run and the cops come knocking on your door, you really don't think they suspect you?
It says, "Words were exchanged, and Ivory was grabbed, handcuffed and thrown to the pavement. The South Bend officers, including Elliott, apparently did not realize that Ivory was a policeman."
Cops know how to identify themselves to each other, duh. If the cops did not know he was a cop, he apparently did not want them to know his identity. Duh. PLEASE!
We had a good one a few months ago concering Hiibel but I can't locate that thread now.
"Holler"? I know what it means -- I use it myself -- but I don't think I've ever seen it in a news article.
Roger Sartin Jr., a 25-year-old South Bend man, said he was downtown and witnessed the incident. He corroborated the women's story…He said Smith was walking away when the officer grabbed her and yanked her arm behind her back. He said he heard a loud popping noise when the bone broke, and he saw the officer throw her to the ground.
The stories don’t really match.
No, they don't match at all.
BTW....I see you are an Air Force man. My father was an Air Force man and we were stationed at Nellis AFB, Rhein Mein AFB, and Moody AFB. It was great!
As for identifying himself as a police officer, why should he?
If his car, (note: not him but his car), was involved in a hit-and-run why wouldn't the responding officers treat him as just another citizen?
Why would he, necessarily, identify himself as a police officer from another jurisdiction?
I understand why you're thinking what you're thinking but what we have right now doesn't make or break either way.
Really. Police don't go looking for the car that got hit.
Interesting that you challenge anything that goes against your 'flame the jack-booted thugs' mentality but make no challenge to a liberal reporters article quoting known drug addicts and thieves.
You don't even know what I am thinking much less know why I am thinking it.
I am curious. Why did you post to the Admin Monitor way back in this thread that you were done with the thread?
It looks like Jess Elliott needs to join the Marines. He can keep his tough guy high and tight hair cut, and he can break all of the Al Queda bones that he likes.
Sure, just flash your get out of jail free card (AKA: a badge).
I am curious....why is that any of your business?
But since you asked BSunday and me were going at it pretty good and we both decided to "cool it" for a while.
Got it?
Looks like he might be on steroids as well.
I didn't know I had a "'flame the jack-booted thugs' mentality".
Most of the time I'm supportive of LEOs and what they try to accomplish.
If they were looking to take a statement they might certainly go looking for the owner of the car that was hit. I'm not saying this was the case, only that from the article we can't tell.
Please don't bring hostility between us from tobacco threads on to threads where we might agree on things. It's counterproductive.
I try to keep things, at least, civil even on other threads where we disagree.
Just curious. Always interesting how these thread move.
Interesting that you only came after me and not those that are of the 'jack-booted thug' mentality.
The same could be said for any on this thread that are making a judgement based on the facts, few that they are, in either of the articles quoted.
If the woman sues, and wins, I would say that the "jack-booted thug" label would be correct in this instance.
If the woman doesn't sue, or sues and loses, the LEO was doing his job amd she happened to do the wrong thing at the wrong time and was called on it by the LEO.
Most others, on both sides of the argument, have done the same thing and the same thing could be pointed out to them.
Interesting. The 'jack-booted thuggers' here were slamming the cop. I was pointing out that they were only looking at one side and you chose to find fault with my posts, not theirs.
Please read the thread and my post. I didn't say the article said. I said he was a 'POSSIBLE' suspect. We don't know but it is possible. Of course the jack-booted thuggers here do not hold out to that possibility.
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