A 28-year-old woman suffered a fractured collarbone last month when she was manhandled by a Chicago Police officer in the South Chicago neighborhood, according to a federal lawsuit filed Friday.
Paris Martin, 28, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court, claiming Chicago Police officers performed an unlawful search and seizure, and used excessive force when they questioned her and her friend on Sept. 22.
Martin and her friend were sitting in her friend’s car across from Martin’s home in the 8700 block of South Burley when two police officers approached in an unmarked squad car, the suit claims.
Martin was ordered to get out of the car and when she inquired why, the suit alleges the officer told her to “get the f— out of the car.”
The officer then “forcibly removed” Martin from the car and slammed her against it, the suit claims.
He also pulled her left arm behind her back, twisted it into a painful position and slammed her chest against the car several more times, the suit alleges.
When Martin complained that the officer was going to break her arm, the suit claims the officer responded by grabbing her arm more forcefully. The other officer stood by and watched, but did not stop the use of force, according to the suit.
Martin was then handcuffed while the officers searched her friend’s car and searched their names in their computer, the suit alleges.
Her friend was ultimately ticketed for not having a Chicago car registration sticker, but no illegal contraband was found and there were no outstanding warrants for Martin’s or her friend’s arrest, the suit claims. Martin was not charged with anything.
The officers then drove Martin around the neighborhood “discussing among themselves what they should do with [her],” the suit alleges.
“After harassing [Martin] for some time and threatening to bring her to the police station to book her despite the fact that they knew she had committed no crime, they let her go on the street approximately one block away from her home,” the suit claims.
Once she got home, Martin felt pain in her left shoulder and chest and was unable to bear any weight on her left arm, the suit alleges.
The suit claims she went to Advocate Trinity Hospital later that night and was diagnosed with a fractured clavicle bone and acute shoulder pain.
The nine-count suit alleges excessive force, unlawful detention, unlawful search and seizure, failure to intervene, assault and battery and, among other things, conspiracy. The two police officers and the city are listed as defendants.
Martin is seeking an undisclosed amount in damages.
The city has not yet been served with the suit, said city Department of Law spokesman John Holden, who declined to comment on it Friday evening.
