New videos show BART cop slamming woman to ground
Newly released videos show a San Francisco transit officer slamming an intoxicated woman to the ground — an event she claims in a federal lawsuit broke teeth and bones in her face, and left her lying in a pool of blood.
The confrontation from March 2014 was caught on body cameras worn by two Oakland police officers, as well as jail security footage. The videos, released by 28-year-old Megan Sheehan’s attorney, show BART police Officer Nolan Pianta shoving Sheehan to the ground so hard it can be heard in the video.
“I should have never gotten that drunk, but also there are ways to detain someone and not break their face,” she told ABC 7.
It happened after Sheehan was arrested by other officers for being intoxicated and belligerent, according to SF Gate. Sheehan had been working a St. Patrick’s Day shift at a bar in San Francisco and was “verbally argumentative” with officers when they found her on a bench at the Lake Merritt Bay Area Rapid Transit Station in Oakland.
She purportedly urinated on herself and tried to wipe the liquid on Pianta’s pants during the ride to jail, and court papers say Pianta claims she attempted to assault him, which isn’t seen in the video.
“I think he was extremely upset about feeling disrespected by the fact that my client threw the hair tie at him,” Sheehan’s attorney, Lizabeth de Vries said Tuesday of the officer’s reaction. “I think he reacted in a way that was completely disproportionate to the facts and circumstances presented to him.”
Pianta’s police report said he used an “arm bar takedown” and “guided her to the ground.” His attorneys deny any wrongdoing in court papers, SF Gate reports.
After Sheehan is thrown to the ground, she is seen motionless as officers stand around her for moments before they ask a jail employee to call for medical assistance.
Sheehan wasn’t criminally charged in the case, but spent two nights in jail.
Contact Kristen DeSilva at 702-477-3895 or kdesilva@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @kristendesilva
