Punched twice while holding an infant
A press conference was held July 25 at Douglas-Hicks Law in Culver City to announce the filing of a lawsuit regarding the punching and arrest of a Black woman by a Sherrif’s deputy in Palmdale on July 14 who was holding a baby.
Attorneys Carl Douglas and Attorney Jamon Hicks are representing the woman in a case that has led to increased calls to overhaul the Pamldale Sheriff’s station.
Sheriff’s deputies pulled over a car reportedly in response to three infants not secured in car seats. The car had four women passengers and three small children. Prior to the woman’s detainment, she was reportedly breastfeeding her child. The deputies approached the car and, according to the lawsuit, allegedly harassed the passengers. Deputies began a discussion with the occupants and subsequently threatened to remove the young child from the woman’s grasp after she, reportedly, became distraught during the encounter.
Deputies removed the infant child from the mother’s arms, after the woman begged and pleaded for the deputies to allow her to contact her sister to come and get the baby. Afterwards, the deputies threatened to take her baby, prompting the woman to scream “You will have to shoot me to take my baby!” The woman was punched twice in the face by a deputy while the baby was being removed from her arms causing the baby to dangle upside down with one deputy pulling on the baby’s leg. The deputies also prevented the woman’s sister from recording.
The incident ended with the woman in jail for more than four days and separated from her young infant child. The lawsuit alleges excessive force, wrongful arrest, unconstitutional custom, practice or policy, and municipal liability for failure to properly train.
