Black Woman Suing Police Over Violent and Unwarranted Arrest

Nakia Porter, a 33-year-old software engineer, is suing the Solano County Police Department in Northern California for her violent arrest last summer.

On the night of August 6, 2020, Porter was traveling back home to Orangevale from a trip to Oakland with her father, two daughters and niece. She and her father were switching seats so that he could drive when the police squad car pulled up behind their vehicle. According to CBS News Bay Area, Porter says that during the arrest she was knocked unconscious and dragged to the back of a police car.

From CBSN Bay Area:

The events unfolded as Porter and her 61-year-old father were making the 100-mile (160-kilometer) drive home to Orangevale, northeast of Sacramento, after a family trip to Oakland. Her two daughters, ages 3 and 6, and her 4-year-old niece were in the back seat. Porter is a software engineer, and her father, who’s retired, worked in computer networking.

Porter was behind the wheel when they stopped along an empty road in Dixon. The deputies’ squad car pulled up behind them with lights flashing. Porter already was out of the car and explained that they were just switching drivers and would be on their way, according to the court filing.

The deputies said they noticed the car had mismatched license plates — a California plate on the back of the car, and one from Maryland on the front.

“However, the deputies had called in the rear license plate to their dispatch and knew that it matched the description of the car and that there was no report of the car being stolen,” the filing states.

The lawsuit, which names two deputies and a superior officer who signed off on the police reports, says that the police not only wrongfully arrested her but also lied about the details of the arrest to responding paramedics and on their reports. The Associated Press reports that body cameras worn by the police recorded them pulling guns on Porter before slamming her to the pavement. They also handcuffed her 61-year-old father.

From AP:

“For those that are listening, I am not resisting,” Porter said into the deputies’ cameras. “You are not reading me my rights.”

The deputies pushed Porter against the squad car and then to the pavement while trying to handcuff her.

“Put your hands behind your back. Get on your stomach,” McCampbell shouted.

The footage gets very shaky, and it’s hard to see whether Porter is resisting. Porter and the court filing allege the deputies punched her in the head and the stomach, kneeled on her back and pulled her hair. She said she passed out seconds after the deputies closed the handcuffs.

“I think she’s out,” McCampbell said on the video.

Porter claims, according to the AP, that she didn’t regain consciousness until five minutes later but the officers told the paramedics that arrived on scene that she regained consciousness within seconds and walked herself to the police car. She requested to be taken to the hospital but the officers denied the request, insisting that she was only knocked out for a little while after fighting them.

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Porter was kept in jail overnight “on suspicion of resisting arrest.” She was released but never charged with a crime.

“I was doing my best to do everything right, giving no reason to be treated like this,” she said.