Suit alleges excessive force by Fayetteville police; claims ex-chief, major condoned behavior
A Fayetteville woman has filed a federal lawsuit against the city, former Police Chief Gina Hawkins, Mayor Mitch Colvin, and at least five police officers alleging excessive force, violation of her civil rights, false arrest and malicious prosecution when city officers arrested her on Christmas Day 2020 on claims she had fictitious plates on her vehicle.
Sheila Lee filed the lawsuit Dec. 22, 2023, nearly three years after several officers yanked her from her vehicle, threw her to the ground and punched her, knocking out her two front teeth, the federal civil complaint alleges.
According to the complaint, the trouble began Dec. 25, 2020, when officers told Lee to move her car from in front of a friend's house. Lee claims she complied with the request and drove home only to be approached in her driveway by officers Molly O'Hara and Richard Rodriguez. The complaint says the officers told her that her tags were fictitious — an allegation she denies — and threatened to arrest her.
Lee, who is a Black woman, alleges in the complaint, that although she was "already beginning to fear what could happen as she was alone with at least three white officers surrounding her," the officers reacted with force when she disputed the allegation. The lawsuit was filed on Lee's behalf by Charlotte attorney Darlene Harris.
According to the lawsuit, as the officers attempted to handcuff Lee while she was still in her vehicle, she told them that cuffing her hands behind her back might reinjure a shoulder she had surgically repaired. She said her offer to be cuffed with her hands in the front was ignored.
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"The defendants took it upon themselves to escalate the situation, reaching into Ms. Lee's car and pulling at her arms, trying to get them behind her back to place Ms. Lee in handcuffs," the complaint, states. Ultimately, she was cuffed with her hands in the front, the lawsuit states.
The officers then allegedly dragged Lee from her vehicle, with the seatbelt still wrapped around her. Her teeth were knocked out when she was thrown to the ground and punched, according to the complaint. Lee also reportedly reinjured her shoulder, hurt her knee and had her body exposed to the "elements and bystanders" when, after she was handcuffed, she was dragged across the ground, causing her to lose her pants and ripping her clothes.
The complaint states that when Lee spit out the blood from her missing teeth, officers accused her of spitting at them, and put a mask over her face. The entire episode, the complaint alleges, caused her to have a panic attack, which resulted in her losing consciousness in an ambulance.
"In enduring this stressful-turned-violent encounter with law enforcement, physical injury, bodily restraint, obscured sight and hearing, being touched by unknown persons, and blood pooling around her mouth and nose as she is kept lying on the ground, Ms. Lee begins to hyperventilate and exhibit the first signs of a panic attack," the complaint states.
Charges dismissed
Lee was charged with resisting a public officer, assaulting a government employee and possessing or displaying a fictitious registration card, court records show. All charges were dismissed by the District Attorney's Office, according to court computer records. The paper file was no longer available in the court clerk's office.
Lee is demanding a jury trial and seeking compensation for her injuries, loss of wages and liberty. She alleges the defendants violated her constitutional rights guaranteed in the Fourth and 14th Amendments which protect against unwarranted search and seizure and ensure the right to due process.
The lawsuit claims Hawkins and Colvin failed to properly train officers in de-escalation techniques, condoned aggressive, abusive and assaultive behavior during arrests, condoned neglect of serious medical needs of those arrested, failed to train officers on how to refrain from unreasonable use of force and permitted the abuse and humiliation of those in custody.
In addition to the city, the mayor, the former police chief and officers O'Hara and Rodriguez, also named as defendants are Fayetteville police officers Krista Zentner and Ashley Wolford and Sgt. Don Bell, all of whom also reportedly responded to the arrest and are accused in the complaint.
"This egregious conduct of Defendants O’Hara, Rodriguez, Don Bell, Krista Zentner and Ashley Wolford, falls in line with the customs, practices, and patterns of behavior of the City of Fayetteville’s police department.
"Defendant Gina Hawkins, the Chief of Police at the time, and Defendant Mitch Colvin, Mayor of Fayetteville, have failed to put proper training and supervision programs in place and have allowed the practice of intimidation and excessive force by the police department to become routine," the complaint alleges. "The City’s policymakers have acted with deliberate indifference to the rights of its citizens, and the injuries and unlawful arrest of Ms. Lee are a direct result."
Attorney Harris did not respond to a request for comment.
Public safety reporter Joseph Pierre can be reached at jpierre@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Sheila Lee filed lawsuit against city for alleged excessive force
