Ocean County Woman Used Child As Human Shield During Arrest: PD

JACKSON, NJ — A Jackson Township woman is facing multiple charges following an altercation with police in which they say she tried to use a child as a human shield and then, after her arrest, urinated on the floor of the holding cell.

Jackson Capt. Steven Laskiewicz said the incident happened Friday, Jan. 25, when police went to a Walter Drive home to serve a court order.

Police Officers Shane Davis and Stephen Cilento arrived about 5 p.m. and found the 28-year-old man who was the subject of the order on the front porch of the house. The man started yelling at another person involved in the incident, and when he refused to stop, was arrested on a charge of violating a court order.

As this happened, Laskiewicz said, a 53-year-old woman went into the house with a young child, also in violation of the court order, and refused to come out. Davis and Cilento were able to get into the house to enforce the order and for the safety of the child, but found the woman had barricaded herself and the child in a bedroom.

The officers tried to negotiate with the woman, then told her she was under arrest for obstruction and ordered her to open the door. But the woman refused to cooperate.

As officers were preparing to force entry into the bedroom, the woman opened the door but was holding the child and refused commands to put the child down. As the officers attempted to arrest her, she used the child as a shield to keep the officers from doing so, then fell onto a bed on top of the child while holding the child around the midsection and refusing to let go, Laskiewicz said.

Officers then used physical force to make her let go of the child, who was having trouble breathing with the woman lying on top of the child, he said.

The woman fought efforts to handcuff her, and once at police headquarters, police discovered she had urinated on the floor of the holding cell and then clogged a toilet in the cell, causing flooding.

The woman was charged with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, interference with a court order, obstruction, resisting arrest and criminal mischief, and later released pending a court appearance.

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Photo by Renee Schiavone, Patch staff