A woman claims she was the victim of police brutality for jaywalking and cursing in Greenwich Village last month. Stephanie Maldonado told ABC that she was walking with a friend in the Village on July 25th when someone from an unmarked van (with tinted windows) yelled at them for jaywalking. Maldonado cursed back at him, and then found herself eating pavement: "I didn't even know he was an officer," she said. "He grabs me and puts me in handcuffs and then with handcuffs already, I feel my arm, he just throws me on the floor."
"With his knee he put all his weight on my face that's why I have all these abrasions, please you are hurting me, you are hurting me," she added.
Maldonado says she never resisted arrest, and didn't deserve her harsh treatment: "No, once I knew it was police, why would I resist arrest, where am I going to go, where am I going to run to?" She was taken to Beth Israel Medical Center where doctors treated her for a fractured hand, broken teeth, and facial bruises.
As part of the city's crackdown on "Broken Windows" offenses in 2014, the NYPD has given out nearly 900% more jaywalking tickets in 2014 than they did in 2013. That has led to a few other confrontations, including an 84-year-old man who needed four staples to his head after the NYPD violently arrested him during a jaywalking stop on the Upper West Side.
The officer who allegedly made the violent arrest, Eric Duval, remains on full duty while Internal Affairs reviews the case. But ABC adds this isn't the first time he's been accused of abuse: Michael Gjenvick claims he was falsely arrested by Duval a few years ago, injuring him in the process. "I was screaming very similar comments, Why are you arresting me? What are you doing? What is going on right now? Not really getting any response other than him shoving my face into the ground," said Gjenvick.
Ultimately, Gjenvick sued Duvall, one other officer, and the city and was awarded $207,000.
