This newly released video from San Francisco obtained by ABC News shows transit cops in the area brutally slamming a drunk woman face-first into the ground, which knocked her out and left her with several broken teeth, multiple face fractures and a pool of blood on the ground.
WATCH [start at 2:03]:
It was St. Patrick’s Day of 2014 when Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police arrested Megan Sheehan for being drunk and disorderly at a local train station.
When Sheehan and police got to the police station, things took a turn for the worst for the woman when police “guided her to the ground.”
This is “guided”:
In court papers obtained by the SF Gate, Officer Nolan Pianta, who can be seen in the video taking slamming Sheehan, said he was just protecting himself from the woman. Sheehan, according to the police report, told police she had a needle she would “prick” police with.
“To protect myself from her attack and to stop her attack on me, I used an arm bar takedown and guided her to the ground,” Pianta wrote. “Upon guiding her to the ground, she landed on her face and appeared to go unconscious.”
While she was admittedly drunk, and acting in a beligerent fashion – she even called one officer a “terrorist” – the graphic video shows Pianta’s statement that he “guided” her to the ground to be a bit of an understatement.
Sheehan’s attorney, Lizabeth de Vries, told the SF Gate she thinks the officer “acted out of spite.”
“I think he was extremely upset about feeling disrespected by the fact that my client threw the hair tie at him,” de Vries told the San Fransisco newspaper. “I think he reacted in a way that was completely disproportionate to the facts and circumstances presented to him.”
No charges have been filed against the officer or the police department, though Sheehan has filed a lawsuit against Pianta and BART.
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