Woman Sues NYPD Officer For Allegedly Wanting To See Her Breasts
A Brooklyn woman, who was arrested for marijuana possession, sent a letter to the city Thursday demanding settlement for being sexually harassed by a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer.
Jasmine Campbell, who was arrested on Feb. 26, 2014 after her car was stopped and searched by police, said in an interview that she was mistreated by NYPD Officer Javier Munoz at the time.
“He said to me, ‘Well, do you want to show me something?’” Campbell said adding that Munoz was staring at her chest at the time, New York Daily News reported. “I then said ‘no’ again. This is three times I said ‘no’ to his questions.”
Her vehicle was stopped and searched by more than one NYPD officer. When she got out of the car with her hands in the air, another officer allegedly chuckled and asked her: “What, are you trying to give us a hug?”
Although Campbell’s friend, who was accompanying her in the car insisted that the drugs were his, the police charged her regardless.
Campbell was a John Jay College student and was about to begin law school at the time she was arrested for marijuana possession and for resisting arrest. As a punishment, she had to spend a night in jail and was released the next morning without bail. The woman claimed the incident caused her to miss her midterms that year — an exam that she could not make up for and as a result had to end up scoring relatively lower grades.
Campbell’s lawyer Lawrence LaBrew said although her client’s case was dismissed after a handful of court appearances, it nonetheless brought humiliation to her.
“The arrest and prosecution of Ms. Campbell was a sham,” LaBrew said. “She was arrested because she would not show Police Officer Munoz her breasts.”
Campbell added she was glad that she decided to move to Florida to study law, as cases of sexual harassment by police officers are rampant in New York. She went on to mention that she was pulled over multiple times after that incident by various NYPD officers who displayed sexually inappropriate behavior toward her.
“It’s a constant thing going on in New York with the cops that they’re just using their badges to, I guess, sexually harass women,” Campbell said. “That’s why I’m so glad to be going to law school in Florida. I don’t even want to live here anymore.”
Campbell was initially offered $2,500 as settlement fees after she filed the suit in Brooklyn Federal Court in late 2016 — an offer that she did not accept. However, according to New York Post, original lawsuit did not include details of the officer’s misconduct.
“What’s worse for me is I have to be in the courtroom with all these people who probably really did bad things,” she said. “I feel like I don’t belong here. This is embarrassing.”
She sued the city and officer Munoz for $2 million for the ordeal faced. She said everyone is taking notice of sexual harassment cases now, because of the #MeToo movement, but her ordeal has been going on for a while now.
“Now, all this sexual harassment is big news — but I have been telling the same story since 2014. This is not something new to me,” she added.
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