Woman sues Coldwater police after bloody arrest video; they say she resisted

(WJBK) - PRODUCER NOTE: Some images in this story are graphic and could be upsetting to some viewers.

A domestic dispute sent a woman to the hospital, but not because of anything her husband did.

Tiffany McNeil says she's the victim of police misconduct. The incident was caught on camera and led to a federal lawsuit. No one disputes that Tiffany McNeil was drunk and out of control when her husband called 9-1-1.

On video McNeil lies in a pool of her own blood. Coldwater police say she launched herself toward an officer, forcing him to take her down. McNeil says she had no idea what happened until she saw the video.

The trouble started on July 24, when McNeil and her husband fought. She admits she had been drinking, police say her blood alcohol level was .21, a dangerously high level.  Police arrested her and took her to the Branch County Jail.

There's no question McNeil was upset; the dispute is whether she posed a threat to police. 

Officer Lewis Eastmead wrote in his report that McNeil used her body weight "to push herself off the wall with her chest and turned toward me. I was not able to push her back."

Eastmead says he then grabbed her upper arms and used an "arm bar take down" technique, taking her to the floor in order to control her better.

McNeil says she has no memory of her time in the garage, or being hospitalized afterward. She remembers being arrested, then waking up in jail. 

"As I woke up, my head and face, my whole body was bruised pretty badly," McNeil said. "My hair was full of blood. my face was unrecognizable - was completely swollen and black. It was actually still pretty bruised when I got out 23 days later."

McNeil says she has no idea how she received her 17 stitches.

"I had no clue and nobody could tell me - or would tell me," she said.

It's not such a mystery to her lawyer, Solomon Radner. 

"This cop literally grabbed her and threw her face first onto the concrete and split her head open," Radner said. "It's not hard to imagine why she can't remember things now."

McNeil was charged with domestic violence and resisting arrest. She pleaded guilty to the domestic violence charge.  Records show she has struggled with alcohol and police before.

She acknowledges that police are needed to resolve disputes like the one she got into, but says there's no excuse for how she was treated.

"I was astounded, I could not believe that an officer had done this to me," she said. "Regardless of whether there's fights, people need officers to come and maybe apprehend them. But not what happened to me under any circumstance whatsoever does that need to happen."

Coldwater City Manager Keith Baker told FOX 2 he could not comment on the lawsuit because it was just filed and he had not yet seen it.  He said he was familiar with McNeil's encounter with police and believes the officers acted appropriately.

As you can guess, McNeil's attorney disagrees.

"Anybody else who would do something like this, grab a handcuffed person, slam that person face-first onto concrete so that they split their head open, requiring stitches and hospitalization," he said. "Anybody who does that belongs in prison. Anybody who did that in front of five other police officers would get arrested on the spot.

"The vast majority of police officers deserve our respect and deserve our support, but things like this do not help them."

McNeil said she learned how she was injured after a woman at the jail recommended that she have her lawyer get a hold of a copy of the video.

McNeil now lives in the metro Detroit area; she says she is afraid to go back to Coldwater.