White Plains
false-arrest suit holds closing arguments today; woman cites race in stun gun
use
Closing
arguments will begin this morning in the case of a Brooklyn woman who accused a
White Plains police officer of malicious prosecution, false arrest and
excessive force after he used a stun gun on her outside of a bar.
Maria
Livingston, 62, first sued Sgt. Stephen Fottrell in U.S. District Court in
April 2009, saying then that Fottrell arrested and used a stun gun on her
outside of Dooley Mac’s bar because of “the color of her skin.”
Fottrell
testified Tuesday that he only arrested Livingston after the woman had punched
him in the chest and smacked him twice in the head with a radio handset.
Livingston is
seeking $6.5 million in the suit, which also names the city of White Plains and
the White Plains Police Department as defendants.
Livingston
said in court papers that she had got into an altercation May 6, 2006, at the
former Waller Avenue bar with an unidentified white male.
The
altercation soon escalated, though, and Michael O’Donnell, an owner of the bar,
testified Tuesday that he then carried Livingston out of the bar with the help
of a bouncer, but not before Livingston grabbed his crotch.
Once outside
the bar, O’Donnell said he flagged down Fottrell, who was in a patrol car
nearby. The 25-year police veteran said he told her to go home, but she
refused, first re-entering the bar to retrieve her keys, and then walking away
when Fottrell approached her again.
But a drunken
Livingston resisted, Fottrell said, adding that he then carried her out. He
next tried to handcuff her, but he said she resisted.
“If you don’t
put your hands behind your back, I’m going to Taser you,” Fottrell said he told
her, before doing just that.
In her
complaint, Livingston denied offering any resistance.
The jury is
expected to begin deliberations in the case later today
Had enough? Write to the Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 and
demand federal hearings into the police problem in America. Demand mandatory body cameras for cops, one
strike rule on abuse, and a permanent
DOJ office on Police Misconduct.