A Louisville, Kentucky, woman has filed a federal lawsuit after she was pushed to the ground and handcuffed by a deputy in her driveway at six months pregnant.
Body-worn camera footage shows Elayshia Boey and her mother begging the officer who pummeled her to stop because she was with child. Vanessa Jenkins tried to pull off the deputy and wrapped her arms around her daughter, whom the deputy had threatened to tase. Both women were charged with assault on the lawman.
However, lawyers for the family argue that the deputy was the one who assaulted the woman.
“This case is about a pattern of unchecked police brutality and its culmination in a dehumanizing assault,” the lawsuit obtained by Atlanta Black Star says.
Court documents show McCracken County Deputy Jon Hayden took the woman straight to the jail instead of a hospital even though she was also bleeding from her forehead and complained of pain. Boey, 24, was transported for medical care only after a jail nurse “took one look” at her and demanded that she be sent to an emergency room, the lawsuit says.
Hayden claims in his arrest report that the two women were “verbally aggressive,” complaining about being approached at home over a minor traffic violation. Hayden claims he arrested Boey because she refused to identify herself, and he had to grab her wrist to “gain control.” Body-camera video shows Boey gave the officer her name, but told him her identification was in the house.
“He certainly didn’t try to de-escalate the situation at all,” attorney James Russel told WDRD. “A taillight started this situation, and it ended with a pregnant young woman being face-planted into a vehicle. Obviously, something along the way there went drastically wrong.”
The conversation was heated seconds after Hayden pulled up to Boey’s vehicle on Feb. 1 as she put red tape on the taillight.
“Is it that serious for a taillight?” Boey asks.
“I’m coming to pull you over,” Hayden says as he walks up to the car.
“For a taillight?” Boey asks.
“OK. Do you want to get cited today because you’re already off on a bad path?”
“You’re already mad,” Boey replies.
“I.D. I.D.,” Hayden says, motioning to the woman to present identification.
“I don’t have one on me. I’ll have to go in the house and get it,” Boey says.
The deputy then asked Jenkins if she had her identification.
“Yes. Is that why you pulled us over?” Jenkins asks.
“You know it is,” Boey replies to her mother.
“This is why I turned around on you,” says Hayden before providing directions on his police radio.
Boey continues to put tape on the taillight.
“By the way, that doesn’t fix it. So—,” the deputy says.
“OK. Well, it still works,” Boey replies and continues to stick the tape.
Jenkins asked the officer to explain. He tells them again that red tape is not the solution.
“We haven’t got pulled over in how long?” Boey asks Jenkins.
“What’s your name,” the deputy asks.
Jenkins asks Hayden why he is upset, and she distances herself from the deputy and tells her daughter she is going inside the house. He tells her to stay put.
“Why do I have to stay here?” she asks.
“Because I am telling you to,” the deputy says.
“You don’t have to talk to me like that,” Jenkins replies.
Hayden asks Boey for her name.
“If you do not I.D. yourself, you’re going to jail. Do you understand me?” Hayden asks.
Boey stops taping the light, and she turns around and approaches the officer and tells him her name. He then spins her around and tries to grab her wrists. Jenkins tells the deputy the woman is pregnant.
“You’re fixing to get tased,” the deputy tells Boey as she fends off his attempts to grab her.
“Hayden then pinned a bloody and screaming Boey to the ground with his knee planted in her back, crushing her and her unborn child beneath his full weight,” the lawsuit says.
McCracken County sheriff Ryan Norman told reporters an internal investigation into the incident was done “within a few days.”
“The response to resistance that Deputy Hayden was forced to use was investigated and there was no policies or procedures that were found to be violated,” Norman said.
The lawsuit alleges that Hayden’s behavior is encouraged because of the culture within the police agency.
“Deputy Hayden’s actions are reprehensible and inexcusable. But they are not uncommon. Such misconduct is typical within the McCracken County Sheriff’s Office,” the lawsuit says. “The McCracken County Sheriff’s Office through its customs, policies, improper training, and total lack of accountability not only endorses such behavior, it encourages it.”
The complaint accuses Hayden of assault, excessive force and failing to render aid to the bleeding pregnant woman. It names the county and its sheriff. It lists other incidents of excessive force by the department.
Boey and Jenkins have pleaded not guilty and been released on bond. They are scheduled to go to trial for the criminal case in November.
The lawsuit is seeking monetary damages that will be determined by a jury and attorney’s fees. Boey has a scar on her head from the incident. Her baby is healthy, according to reports.
