Woman Arrested For Putting Feet On Metro Seat Speaks Out

SOUTH PASADENA, CA — An 18-year-old woman arrested by a Los Angeles police officer for allegedly refusing to take her foot off a subway seat spoke out Monday after filing an excessive force claim against the city. Last week, cell phone footage of the Jan. 22 incident went viral, and many claimed the officer abused his power while others applauded the actions of the officer while criticizing the young woman for insolence.

In the video, the officer is seen dragging the woman off a Metro train as she frantically objects and other passengers plead with the officer to rethink his actions.

On Monday, the young woman held a news conference with her lawyer, claiming she did nothing wrong and was targeted by the sergeant involved.

"I'm a young girl," Bethany Nava said at a news conference at the South Pasadena office of her attorney, Michael Carrillo. "... I've always looked to the police as my protectors, as somebody who could keep me safe. Now I can say that I'm deeply afraid of him. I'm afraid to get on the Metro because I might see him and I don't know what he'll do to me if he sees me again."

Carrillo filed a legal claim on behalf of Nava against the city of Los Angeles on Friday, seeking unspecified damages. The claim is a precursor to a lawsuit.

Mayor Eric Garcetti, who chairs the Metro board, said he was not going to make any rush judgments about what happened when asked about the confrontation by reporters after a ceremony at Union Station celebrating the 25-year anniversary of the Red Line.

"I expect everybody who rides to have respect for the rules, and everybody who polices to use their judgment and discretion," Garcetti said. "I think that's on both sides, and that's something that's important to remember. And this incident is being looked into -- now there's legal actions that are being taken. I can't go into greater detail."

Nava was pulled off a subway train Jan. 22 at the Westlake/MacArthur Park subway station, Police eventually pulled the screaming woman off the train, even as she hooked her arm around a pole and yelled that her belongings were still on the subway.

The confrontation was caught on cell phone video that was widely broadcast. In the ensuing chaos, another woman, Selena Lechuga, was arrested for allegedly spitting on the LAPD sergeant involved in the arrest of Nava.

The video, which was posted to Facebook by another passenger last Monday, has been viewed more than 13 million times. It shows the officer ordering the 18-year-old off the train and then dragging her off at the Westlake/MacArthur Park station when she refused to leave. Bystanders can be heard begging and shouting at the officer to leave her alone.

“I already told you what to do, and you disobeyed me. You’re getting off the train,” the officer can be heard at the start of the incident, which quickly escalates.

“No I am not,” Nava responds. As he lifts her by the arm, she shouts, “You are not allowed to touch me!"
Nava grabs a railing, resisting the officer’s efforts to drag her off the train and cursing at him. He then shoves her into a wall and handcuffs her.

Bystanders follow them off the train, shouting and pleading with the officer to desist.

“You think you can do this? Really?” one woman asks the officer.

“Yes I can,” he replies while cuffing the panicked teen.

“Officer, please, please. Please stop doing this. Officer please stop doing this,” a man can be heard on the video. “Over her foot? Over her foot, really?”

Police officers "encounter hundreds of conduct issues each day, and some of them are faced with very difficult situations," he said. "But my hope is that we work to de-escalate situations as much as possible. The investigation is under way to gather all the facts, and until we have the complete story, we must not rush to judgment."

The Metro system is patrolled by a multi-agency partnership that includes the LAPD, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the Long Beach Police Department, in addition to Metro's own security personnel.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck last week also asked people to avoid rushing to judgment based on the video.

"What I would ask everybody is, let's all be civil in our interactions, you know?" Beck said during an appearance on ABC7. "I'm not going to pre-judge this. Obviously there's things of concern in the video, but I will tell you this: the sergeant involved in this is a 20-plus-year veteran with almost no use-of-force history. And we owe him an unbiased investigation that is more than just watching a snippet of video and making a judgment.

"And I will also tell you that during this incident he was spit on -- not by that young lady but another," he said. "Let's all be civil. If an officer asks you to do something, please do it. And to my officers also, let's be reasonable about the force you use."

Nava said she had her foot on her own seat when the sergeant approached her and asked her to put her foot down, and she complied. She said when the sergeant walked away, "I put my foot on my right thigh. And I guess it looked like it was still on the seat," she said, prompting the sergeant to return.

"He told me `You're going to put your foot down or I'm going to arrest you,"' Nava said, adding that she put her foot down on the floor again.

"I faced toward him and asked him, `Why are you arresting me? What's the law that I'm breaking?' And he says `there doesn't need to be a law, you're disobeying me."'

"... I just wanted to understand why he wanted to take me off the train," she said. "Instead of explaining, he grabbed me by my right elbow and started to pull me off the train. I told him, `You can't touch me like that.' And he said, `I can touch you all I want.' Then he started to pull me really hard out of the train while telling me to get my (expletive), but not giving me the chance to because it was still on my seat.

"... I just want to say that I reacted how I did out of fear and confusion," she said. "... I've never been in trouble with the law before. I didn't resist when they put the handcuffs on me. ... There was no point in fighting. When they put the cuffs on me pretty tightly, I had a panic attack realizing the situation I was in. I didn't fight after that. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before."

City Councilman Joe Buscaino posted a statement on Twitter expressing support for the officer's actions.
"As an LAPD officer for 15 years, I never went to work looking forward to hauling someone to jail, and always practiced de-escalation," he wrote. "I understand how it can be very easy to put your foot up, especially if you are tired. However, we must show respect to our fellow travelers, and definitely show respect to an authority who is acting in the interest of public safety."

City News Service; Photo by Carl Nenzen Loven on Unsplash