Originally published February 25 2015
Eighty-year-old is pepper sprayed by cop; children punched in the face, choked, brain-damaged
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) An 80-year-old grandmother has filed suit against a school-based cop who allegedly lost his cool and manhandled her to the tune of more than $180,000 in medical bills.
As reported by KSFN in Fresno, Calif., Mary Poole - who is less than five feet tall and weighs less than 100 pounds, was dropping off cupcakes last year at Kastner Middle School when, she says in her suit, a Clovis Unified police officer asked her to leave because of a court order against her.
According to the local ABC affiliate, what happened next is what she is calling excessive and unjust:
Court documents claim the officer sprayed pepper spray in the woman's face twice during a confrontation in front of the school. She ended up with a dislocated shoulder and fracture, and pain she says is just now starting to subside.
Poole said she had good intentions when she arrived at the school last April to give her granddaughters some cupcakes she had baked after they got out of school. For a number of years she was the guardian of her son's daughters, but a custody dispute between their parents left her with the inability to see them.
'He got confrontational'
"I hadn't seen my granddaughters for some time and I wanted to see them, and so I baked some cupcakes and bought some cookies for my granddaughters' classroom," Poole said, according to KSFN.
As she waited at the front door of a classroom, she said an officer told her she had to leave because there was a restraining order against her. Poole said she then left the campus but pulled her car over to a curb in front of the school.
Apparently, that wasn't good enough.
"He wouldn't listen to anything I had to say, period," said Poole. "Every time I tried telling him anything...I mean, I was even telling him, 'I'm 78 years old,' before he grabbed me. He sprayed me with mace twice."
Poole said she was talking to her son on her cellphone, telling him what happened, when suddenly the officer got confrontational.
"And I was very frightened, and I told him to call the police and he said, 'I am the police,'" Poole told the station.
After that, Poole says he became physical with her.
"He jerked me out of my car with my left arm with such great force, and then threw me onto the pavement. From there he dragged me by my left arm up to the school grounds," she says.
According to her lawsuit, which she filed against Clovis United, Poole is claiming excessive force, elderly abuse and false arrest.
According to a lawsuit filed Monday, Poole is suing Clovis Unified claiming, "The amount of force it took to inflict these injuries is testament to what happened that day," Mark Coleman, Poole's attorney, told the local affiliate.
In a separate incident in Louisville, Kentucky, a city cop serving as a school resource officer was arrested and charged recently with punching a teen in the face and putting another in a chokehold.
Detectives said the arrest was made after they viewed the incidents on the school's video surveillance tapes.
Multiple assaults
As reported by WLKY, the officer, Jonathan Hardin was seen on the video on Jan. 22 "...in the school cafeteria during lunch when detectives say [he] punched a 13-year-old in the face..." after he believed the teen had cut in line.
Also, the local news station reported:
Court documents say Hardin then gave the student a uniform violation, and charged him with menacing and resisting arrest, even though he knew there was no probable cause. The student suffered a laceration to the inside of his mouth and swelling to his face. He was treated at Kosair Hospital.
Then, on Jan. 27, Hardin placed another 13-year-old in a chokehold, rendering him unconscious. Court documents said that when the student regained consciousness, Hardin handcuffed him.
"Court documents state Hardin instead of getting the student medical help, he kept the student out of class for the remainder of the day, then drove him home. Hardin failed to tell the students' parents what had occurred," WLKY reported. "A doctor later determined the student suffered brain damage."
Sources:
http://abc30.com
http://www.wlky.com
http://www.activistpost.com
https://www.youtube.com
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