There is an ongoing controversy in Los Angeles where pharmacist Kim Nguyen, 27, has charged that she was picked up for no reason by police, handcuffed, sexually assaulted, and then thrown out of a moving police car. A video shows the scene as Nguyen is left bleeding on the road.
The officers were identified as David Shin and Jin Oh in a report from the LA Times.
Nguyen says that she was waiting with her friends for a taxi to take them home when LAPD pulled up and began asking them questions. Despite the fact that they were waiting for a taxi to take them home, the officers allegedly declared Nguyen to be intoxicated and put her in the car in handcuffs. The officer left her two male friends behind and they say that the officers refused to tell them where they were taking Nguyen. She says that one officer stayed in the backseat with her as the other drove down the road. She claims that the officer in the backseat groped her behind her thighs as well as her chest. She says that she was then thrown out of the moving car. A video shows her on the road as a squad car is seen speeding through the intersection.
Nguyen was left in a coma with a broken jaw and brain injuries. She spent two weeks in the hospital. She reportedly lost all of her teeth.
Police insisted that Kim “fell out” of the car but critics say that the video shows the car speeding through the intersection. Her lawyer, Arnoldo Casillas, charges “[t]he video shows that the statement that the police officers gave the paramedics is an unabashed, unequivocal lie.” He notes that, since she was handcuffed, she could not open the door herself. Kim adds that she could not have opened the door herself, because she was handcuffed.
However, why would the officer throw the woman handcuffed from the car when they knew that witnesses saw the arrest and the handcuffs would implicate them?
On the other hand, why arrest a woman who says that she is waiting for a taxi with friends?
It is a curious case to be sure and quite disturbing. The LAPD has made no further statement.
Nguyen is now suing the LAPD and discovery could prove very interesting given the sharp conflict in accounts.
Kudos: Michael Blott
To those that ask “was a rape kit done”. She claims she was sexually assaulted (“groped between the thighs, and her chest”). Sadly, this leaves no DNA evidence.
If these charges are true (sadly, similar charges like them are being found to be true all to often), then these officers need to be fired, imprisoned, and put on the list of sexual predators.
Do this enough times to officers that believe they are “above the law” and you will see a change.
Requiring officers to wear body mounted cameras and squad cars to have internal cameras (which the officer in question does not have access to the recording) has been shown to reduce the number of “use of force” incidents as well as the number of abuse charges.
Scum bags
When will the Justice Departmen take over tne LAPD?
“Why did the officer throw her out with the handcuffs?”
He panicked when the other police car followed him and ended up behind him right after the intersection. It’s not a coincidence that she was thrown right after the other car showed up. He freaked out, because he knew it didn’t look good, so he threw her out to silence her( for sexually assaulting her), hoping she would die and they can just claim she jumped. It’s so obvious from the video tape…sexually assaulting her was their plan, from the moment they arrested “her only” without any reason. How about the bruises inside her thighs and her rolled up skirt?
randyjet, I’m on my way to San Diego for the winter and drove past General Curtis Lemay’s old stomping grounds in Nebraska. They have a SAC museum there now.
I know about the museum, but I did not get a chance to see it when I was there a number of years ago. It is not named after LeMay thankfully.
I would love to hear all the facts surrounding this…what a bizarre story.
Let’s go back to why she was in the car in the first place. She was waiting for a taxi with 2 friends. With what was she being charged? So if she opened the door herself and jumped out, I’d say she was escaping from kidnappers.