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