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Cop Allegedly Beat Pregnant Woman's Belly With Baton During Rough Arrest
By
John Del Signore
Published Sep 25, 2014
Modified Sep 25, 2014
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Courtesy CBS2
By
John Del Signore
Published Sep 25, 2014
Modified Sep 25, 2014
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The pregnant woman whose disturbing arrest last Saturday was caught on camera says that in addition to being thrown to the street by police, she was also beaten in the belly with a police baton. At a press conference yesterday, Sandra Amezquita and her attorney Sanford Rubenstein released images showing lacerations on her belly which are allegedly the result of a retractable NYPD "ASP" baton. “She was doing nothing wrong, an innocent victim," Rubenstein told reporters. "And certainly a pregnant woman—any woman—should not be treated the way she was."
Officers struggled to arrest Amezquita, 44, after she interfered with their attempt to arrest her 17-year-old son, Jhohan Lemos, who allegedly had an illegal gravity knife clipped to his belt. Police sources tell the Wall Street Journal that Lemos, who has an arrest record that includes robbery and gang assault, tried to flee after plainclothes officers approached him shortly after 2 a.m. outside 4015 Fifth Avenue in Sunset Park.
Lemos was chased and caught by officers a block away. As they struggled to subdue him, Lemos's father and another man "repeatedly punched an officer on the ground, leaving the officer with injuries to his hand," police sources tell the Times and the Journal. (A photograph of the younger Lemos after his arrest shows his face marred by bruises and an eye swollen shut.) They were charged with assaulting an officer, obstructing governmental administration and second-degree harassment.
When Amezquita, who is five months pregnant, intervened, police attempted to arrest her. Cell phone video taken by a community activist appears to show her resisting arrest, then falling belly-first to the street, at which point two officers kneel on top of her to secure the handcuffs. Here is how the New York Times describes what we see in the video:
The footage shows [Jhohan's] mother, Sandra Amezquita, who is five months pregnant, first trying to intervene, then being grabbed from behind by an officer and falling to the street on her abdomen.
Post by El Grito De Sunset Park.
The video does not appear to show any officers beating Amezquita in her belly with the baton. But their brutality did not end there, according to Dennis Flores, who filmed the arrest. “They put a Taser to her stomach," Flores told reporters yesterday. (Rubenstein says it's unclear if a Taser was used.) Amezquita, a Colombian immigrant, was issued a summons for disorderly conduct.
Amezquita says she has experienced vaginal bleeding and abdominal pain since the arrest, but her doctor could not say if the fall injured her child. She told reporters, "I am afraid of what might happen to my baby."
Flores also says police planted the weapon on Jhohan. “According to this young man, the cops, when they put the razor blade in his pocket, they told him, ‘We’re going to make sure this time, it sticks,’” Flores said at the press conference. “So the mom saw this, started yelling out, and the cops grabbed her and slammed her against the floor like we see in the video."
Patrick Lynch, a spokesman for the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, issued a statement saying, "This dark, grainy video didn't capture, as most videos don't, the crime that led to the arrest in the first place. No one should ever resist arrest, nor should anyone interfere with an arrest in progress."
NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating the incident, but so far no officers have been disciplined. The video is the second to emerge this month showing officers from the 72nd precinct clashing with locals on the streets of Sunset Park. One local resident tells the Times, "I’m not afraid of the criminals, I’m afraid of the cops."
Tagged
nypd
police brutality
sandra amezquita
sunset park
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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