On dutyExcessive forceThreats/intimidationFalse arrest or reportPhysical forceTaserResisting or obstructing arrest charges
Plaintiff:
Mary Sims
Incident date:
08/21/2010
Allegations:
Sims stood in her apartment's gated courtyard as Chicago police officers pulled over a vehicle in the area. Another female resident left the gated area and exchanged words with the officers. The officers pursued her. Sims opened the locked gate when an officer told her to. The officers couldn't catch the other resident and turned their attention to Sims. One officer told Sims to put away her cellphone. Another asked what Sims was drinking. A “taste of beer,” she answered. The officer threatened to arrest her for an open container. Sims responded that it was her property. The officers surrounded her. A male officer grabbed her hair, threw her down and kneed her in the back. Green saw the officer grab his wife and walked out of the building. He asked the officers why they were doing this to her. Two officers pointed Tasers at Green and told him to get his “fat ass“ back into the building. Green was jumped before he made it back inside. One officer put a knee into his back while another stood on his hand. Sims and Green were thrown into a wagon with the men who were arrested earlier. Sims told officers she had a young child with special needs, but they ignored her. Sims and Green were kept in the wagon for over two hours as the officers made other stops. Sims had a panic attack due to the heat of the unventilated wagon. She asked an officer at the station what the charges were, and he told her, “You people just don't understand.” Sims asked him to clarify, and he told the other officers to “take this bitch in before I have to do something.” Sims was released at approximately 2 a.m. the next day. Green was released around 9 a.m. Neither of them had been convicted of a crime before. Both were charged with obstruction of justice. The charges against the couple were later dismissed.