Feuerstein was arrested for DUI after officers found her pulled over at the side of the road and asleep behind the wheel. The video below shows a calm Feuerstein who asks to call her husband and kids. Officer Michael Hart calls her out of the cell, and less than 20 seconds later, the video shows Hart throwing the 110-pound woman back into the cell — face-first into a cement bench.
A police report says that Feuerstein was not looking at the camera when being processed and then charged her with resisting arrest while being brought back to the cell. The subsequent charge raises obvious concerns. We have previously seen where, after an abusive arrest or seizure of property, police will add charges against the alleged victim. Notably, in this case, the State’s Attorney later dropped the resisting arrest charges and Feuerstein pleaded guilty to drunk driving. What is not clear is if the prosecutors saw this video and failed to take any actions. There is no report of any discipline for the officers.
The police report states that the resisting arrest charge was based on the grounds that Feuerstein “knowingly resisted … in that she pulled away from (the officer) and placed both her hands on the sides of the cell door all in an attempt to not be placed into the holding cell.” That charge appears entirely spurious and abusive and reads like a transparent effort to coerce a victim into silence in hopes of a plea deal. Yet, again, the officer does not appear to have been disciplined and the prosecutors took no action other than dropping the obviously baseless charge.
Neither the police chief nor the city would make any comment. The pictures and video below however speak for themselves.
Source: NBC