A woman contends College Park police arrested her on false charges outside her own apartment when she had her child in tow after officers refused to believe she lived in the complex.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court this week against College Park and three police officers, Jennifer Bentley Nwankwo described a Kafkaesque scenario of officers arresting her when she didn’t produce a lease showing she was a current resident of the apartment on Godby Road. When she tried to go into the locked apartment to get the lease, the officer blocked her from doing so, the lawsuit said.
She ended up handcuffed and in the Fulton County jail for two days, said the lawsuit, which contended that such illegal arrests are a common practice in the south Fulton city.
College Park’s attorney Steve Fincher declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying he was just hearing of the allegations. A message left for College Park Police Chief Ron Fears was not immediately returned.
Officers Jean L. Davis and David Hough started interrogating Nwankwo and her companion when they arrived at the complex with her child in the early morning hours on Oct. 14, 2012. Later they were joined by Officer Austin C. Smith
The lawsuit contends the couple had committed no crime, were in a vehicle registered to Nwankwo — whose surname then was Bentley — and were immediately detained.
Nwankwo was walking to the apartment to fetch the lease while carrying her child when an officer gabbed her “placing her child in danger,” the lawsuit said.
“Defendant Hough and defendant Davis immediately slammed Plaintiff to the ground,” the lawsuit said. “Defendant Smith came and assisted defendants Davis and Hough by applying pressure to plaintiff’s head.
“Davis, Hough and Smith caused pain and injury to plaintiff’s person while wrestling her to the ground and holding her there.”
The officers then wrote a false incident report to justify their actions, the lawsuit said. When Nwankwo complained to their supervisor at the station, her complaint was dismissed without an investigation, the lawsuit said.
Instead, the officers and city tried to prosecute Nwankwo for battery against a police officer, cruelty to a child and obstruction of justice.
It only ended after a Fulton County Superior Court judge put the case on the dead docket, a maneuver which technically keeps the case alive but marks it for non-prosecution.
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