Woman Calls 911 To Report Police Brutality So Cops Beat Her Too

Video has emerged showing a Roxbury, Massachusetts woman being assaulted, pepper-sprayed, and beaten with a baton by Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officers after she confronted them for assaulting an elderly woman and called 911 in March 2014.

Mary Holmes said in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed Wednesday, that MBTA officer Jennifer Garvey was “screaming and swearing at an elderly woman” at the Dudley Square bus station in Roxbury before “slam[ing the woman] down on a bench.”

Holmes says she attempted to aid the woman by asking Garvey not to yell at her when she was told by Garvey to “shut the fuck up.”

The lawsuit asserts that officer Garvey then shoved the elderly woman, slapped a water bottle she was holding into her face, and “slammed her down into the bench in a prone position, and dragged her across the bench.”

In response, Holmes said she called 911 to report the assault causing Garvey to “advanc[e] towards her, while screaming and swearing at her.” While on the phone, the lawsuit says, Holmes was pepper sprayed by Garvey, who then knocked her phone out of her hand.

Surveillance video from the scene obtained by the ACLU then shows Garvey being joined by MBTA officer Alfred Trinh before the two officers proceed to beat Holmes with a baton, throw her to the ground, and arrest her.

Watch the raw footage starting at about 9 min in:

Holmes was charged with “assault and battery on a public employee, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct” – but after prosecutors saw the video – the charges against her were dropped , the lawsuit says.

Holmes says the incident left her requiring stitches to wounds on her shin, resulted in the destruction of her property and caused her mental distress.

The lawsuit, which was filed by the ACLU, maintains the officers “violated the woman’s First and Fourth Amendment rights” and is seeking compensation for damages, attorney’s fees and “any further damages decided by the court.”

“Unfortunately, the officers’ reactions are part of a broader, troubling trend, in which police officers mistreat individuals exercising their constitutional rights,” ACLU attorney Jessie Rossman said. “It has to stop.”

Officer Garvey was placed on paid leaving following a unrelated January incident in which she pointed a gun at her wife, but Officer Trinh remains on active duty, police say.

“While the MBTA doesn’t ordinarily comment on pending litigation, the allegations contained within the complaint are concerning to the authority,” MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said. “The MBTA takes these allegations very seriously.”