Posted on 10/11/2013 5:21:56 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Cassandra Feuerstein of Chicago was thrown face first by a Skokie officer into a concrete jail cell bench, suffering multiple injuries, her lawyer says. Feuerstein was arrested in March on suspicion of driving under the influence.
A Chicago woman arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence has filed a lawsuit alleging police in Skokie, Ill., violently threw her into a jail cell, shattering several bones in her face.
Cassandra Feuerstein, 47, was arrested March 10 and charged with DUI after police found her sleeping on the side of the road as she sat behind the wheel of her car.
Surveillance video released Wednesday shows a calm Feuerstein being taken out of a jail cell for processing by a male officer.
According to Feuerstein’s lawyer, Torri Hamilton, seconds after her client asked to call her husband and children, the officer hurled the 110-pound woman back into the cell with such force that she fell and landed face first on a concrete bench.
Bleeding profusely, Feuerstein lies motionless for several seconds before two other officers come to her aid.
"The video speaks for itself," Torri Hamilton, Feuerstein's lawyer, told the Chicago Tribune. "She does nothing to justify what this male police officer does."
Hamilton said Feuerstein filed suit because no disciplinary action was being taken against the officer. While Feuerstein pleaded guilty to driving under the influence, the State’s Attorney dropped charges made by the officer that she had resisted arrest.
Feuerstein suffered several broken bones in her face, was fitted for a titanium plate in her cheek and required reconstructive surgery as a result of the incident, Hamilton said.
"This can go from 0-60 so quickly, like this man did with someone who's clearly no threat to him is dangerous — could be dangerous with that type of power that he has," Hamilton told News 5 Chicago. "She doesn't even know - we don't even know what she's going to need in the future."
I understand where you are coming from and I am sure that the police officer is sick of it. There are a lot of things I’m sick of but there is only so much that can be done, regardless of how bad the situation is.
As long as people can drink and drive, they are going to drink and drive - be it one at an office party or friend’s house or a whole bunch in a bar. I don’t want a nanny state where you have to blow in a device every time you want to drive your car. But there are interventions which would help some. Like put a device on someone’s car on their first DUI and put them in an in-patient treatment program for 90 days - not one day less and don’t let them out to work or engage in any activity on their first DUI - regardless of who they are or how much money they have.
It’s all about accepting personality responsibility and having laws which work and are enforced at all levels. None of either of these seem to be in much abundance in the U.S. anymore.
That being said, on shore patrol we used to have technique known as "clamshelling" which involved two stokes stretchers and a fistful of zip ties. You have to remember to flip the guy face down and put him on a couple saw horses once he stops fighting. Much easier to clean up after he pukes. Never did any use of force documentation for that.
In the ROK, use of hand irons has a huge cultural stigma attached to it, so much so that (at least while I was there) anytime a ROK national needed to be cuffed on post, it generated a SIR that went straight to the 4-star level.
“Pathetic what Law Enforcement has become.”
Agreed. I typically used to respect cops. As a kid the local cop was a good guy, a friend, someone to look up to.
This changed with my first negative experience a few years back with a National Park Service cop. Uncalled for violence and badgering, a very hateful person, power hungry. I soon realized others had problems with this guy as well as other NPS cops being just like him.
She wasn't even driving a car when arrested. Yes I know they can charge you but its stupid.
Taxpayers will be getting what they deserve. They are supposed to be vigilant for misbehavior on the part of their public servants. If they want their trash picked up and their roads in good repair, they better start doing their civic duties.
Anyone confronted by cops should make it a point to memorize the offending cop's badge number. It's easy enough to get access to a police roster to identify the cop's name and history, and even their home address. I don't need to tell you what you could do with that once you have it.
People here on FR need to wise up. Bill Clinton really started this with his additional 100,000 cops which included many with lower standards. Now those lower standards are permanent and got lower.
See how the Park Rangers are acting. Cops shooting unarmed people in 3 am raids and not getting charged, killing your dogs, and beating you on camera and getting away with it.
Many here still think they won’t come after us if ordered. Wise the f up people, they already are!
Do you think the law quoted in post #66 should be applied to this case?
My mother was killed by a drunk driver. This woman was asleep in her car and charged with driving drunk. I think what the cop did is wrong and what she was charged with stupid as well.
If one is drunk (passed out drunk at the wheel with the keys in the ignition with a blood alcohol level above the limit breathing fire alcohol smelling) and in the drivers seat with the keys in the ignition then one is capable of causing bodily injury and death, however I cannot expect cop haters to side with the victims or potential victims here, she was drunk driving, DWI, DUI, as deadly as an Al Quaeda dope with a bomb.
No she was passed out drunk with the keys in the ignition.
Asleep.
I sleep in bed.
Do you sleep on the road in the drivers seat
Yes I have many times and no I wasn’t drunk.
If you are passed out drunk with the keys in the ignition it’s not innocently sleeping.
Do people here really take the right to drink and drive or drink and drive and pass out and then drive so seriously?
If she was ASLEEP, she has ZERO chance of killing someone driving. CAUSE SHE ISN’T DRIVING!
Just because you are a bootlicker doesn’t make you right and the real VICTIM here was the woman who was woken from sleep and had her face smashed by a cop.
Do yo really think a cop has the right to smash the face of defenseless women? I think this says a whole lot more about you.
I already told you my mother was killed by a drunk driver (not sleeper) in 1967. I don’t use it as an excuse for jihad on drinkers.
No. The only way that I’ve seen work is to take away their privilege to drive.
Driving is a privilege.
It’s not like eating whatever you want to and not having a national health care system to watch over everyone to see that there isn’t any undue funds going to people who should be managing better
driving is a privilege and a license is given to the truly worthy. Not normally a bribable document.
If one is passed out drunk at the wheel at 47 years old and a woman who belongs home at night taking care of herself and probably others. Not on her way home from drinking with strangers, then her license needs to be revoked.
Sleeping.
In the car.
In the drivers seat.
47 years old.
A woman.
That’s innocent.
Really?
A 47 year old woman drunk at the wheel can inflict as much damage as a suicide bomber.
Nope.
I said he was wrong and he’s going to feel the full weight of it.
But we are voters here.
We want to know the issues.
One issue here is that we allow reckless and drunk driving and it is unnecessary.
This cop has cleaned up more residue from drunk and residue than you will ever know. That’s my guess.
Coming across families whose kids on the road are facing dead parents and the drunk driver innocently wandering around like beautiful dreamer here, unaware of what they’ve just done.
Our judicial system can say, no. Like they do on military bases. Caught drunk? Life is over. Passed over for promotion, dishonorable discharge, in some cases, loss of driving privileges. Total embarrassment.
No one drives drunk on base.
Not really.
Do I think the law in post 66 should be applied in this case? Absolutely not. Has a car been specifically defined as a lethal weapon? I don’t know - I am not an attorney.
Everyone I know has at one time or another made a bad choice, including me. Sometimes bad things happen when those involved didn’t make a bad choice.
If the woman was pulled over asleep, certainly one of the officers choices was to just take her keys and let her figure out her own way to get home. Just really bad choices on the part of both parties involved. And these bad choices will have an effect on lots of other people.
No easy answers to some things.
Doesn't matter, the rapacious government needs its fines. If you are drunk and sitting on your own porch with the keys to your car in your pocket, they can jack you up for DUI in most jurisdictions now.
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