Bronx Woman Alleges Miscarriage After Harassment By NYPD Officer, Files Lawsuit

A Bronx woman filed a lawsuit Tuesday after allegedly suffering a miscarriage when a New York City Police Department (NYPD) Office assaulted her.

According to the lawsuit, Lt. Raymond Meyer harassed Norma Reyes and her boyfriend Julius Segars during a traffic stop in the South Bronx in April 2016. After the incident, she filed a complaint against the police officer with NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau.

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Reyes was reportedly 10 weeks pregnant when Lt. Meyer and another officer, Lawrence Sanchez, approached the couple and Seger’s Cousin Kurt Gorin in May and detained the three of them. The lawsuit filed by Reyes — along with Segars and Gorin — against the City of New York and six police officers alleged the officers "intentionally and willfully" subjected all three of them to "false arrest and excessive force" on May 15.

It said the trio tried to walk away, but Lt. Meyer followed Gorin and overtook him. He then pushed the latter against the wall and detained him there, even as Gorin protested. The police officer then pulled out a can of ‘chemical spray’ and threatened to spray Gorin with it.

Reyes and Segers began filming the incident. In a recorded video of the incident posted online, the police officer could be seen behaving in an aggressive manner with Gorin, pinning him to the ground.

Two other officers can be seen approaching the scene, which is when the video cuts. The lawsuit says that the officers blocked the line of sight from their cameras. They then sprayed Gorin with the chemical spray.

The lieutenant then told the other officers to “take them all” after which Reyes was also sprayed and pushed against the wall, she said. After all three of them were arrested and put into the police vehicle, she alerted the police, saying she was “bleeding between her legs, and needed immediate medical treatment,” but her pleas were ignored, the lawsuit said.

Medical attention was only given to her after she, Gorin and Segar were brought to the 41st Precinct and booked for arrest, where they were not even given sufficient water to wash the pepper spray out of their eyes. By the time an ambulance was called for Reyes, the baby was already dead, she claimed.

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However, charges were not brought against Reyes and the other two plaintiffs, according to her lawyer Nicholas Mindicino. He said he would be "serving the officers shortly" in the case, at which point they'll have a chance to respond. "Then we begin discovery.”

The damages claimed by the plaintiffs included violation of rights according to Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, emotional trauma, loss of liberty and physical pain and suffering, among others.

"We will not comment on this pending case. We will review the complaint once we are served,” said a spokesman for the city’s Law Department, according to New York Daily News.