Woman Caught On Camera Tumbling Out Of Police Car Says She Was Being Sexually Assaulted
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A woman who was shown on camera tumbling out of a moving LAPD squad car last year said she fell out of the vehicle to avoid being sexually assaulted by her arresting officer.
KCAL9's Stacey Butler spoke to the woman's attorney, Arnoldo Cassillas.
The alleged victim, Kim Nguyen, a 27-year-old pharmacist, says she was handcuffed in the back of a squad car when an officer began to sexually assault her in the early morning hours of March 17, 2013. Nguyen said the officer's negligence also caused her to tumble out of the vehicle.
Video of the incident appears to show Nguyen sprawled on the ground with her dress removed from the waist down.
Nguyen says it all started around 2 a.m. when she was standing in front of a downtown restaurant with two male friends. She said they were waiting for a cab, as they had all been drinking.
She said officers pulled up and placed her in the back of a patrol car — for allegedly being intoxicated — and left the men behind.
In a deposition taped this past December, she claimed the officer who was in the back seat with her started grabbing her left inner thigh and began opening her legs. Nguyen says the officer touched her chest and pulled her ears to get her closer to him.
Cassillas told Butler his client spent two weeks in the hospital and her jaw had to be wired shut. She lost all of her teeth.
The LAPD told Butler they would not comment on pending litigation.
