Kim Nguyen, a 28-year-old accounting and marketing graduate student at Loyola Marymount University, is suing LAPD after falling out of a moving cop car and sustaining critical injuries from the event.
On March 17th, Nguyen was out with friends in Koreatown. While waiting with two others on a sidewalk for their designated driver, Nguyen was detained by LAPD officers David Shin and Jin Oh for suspicion of public intoxication.
Nguyen was handcuffed and placed in the backseat of the cop car. At one point, Nguyen was ejected from the moving vehicle and sustained serious injuries including a broken jaw and brain injuries. Nguyen had to be put in a medically induced coma to heal and may still need to have brain surgery.
Her lawsuit argues, “officers failed to secure her with a seatbelt or lock her door properly, which led to her being ejected from the car.”
Surveillance footage captures some of the incident. The officers had stated that they were accelerating from a stop, however, the footage shows the car driving through a green light just moments before the incident.
“The video shows that the statement that the police officers gave the paramedics is an unabashed, unequivocal lie,” said Casillas during the press conference. The graphic footage shows Nguyen, still in handcuffs, laying on the street with her clothing bunched around her waist. Officers stand over her as her legs move back and forth on the ground.
The surveillance video can be viewed below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrzE6Et-5lc#t=108
(source)
