Woman Punched By Cops Sues Wildwood Officers, City

WILDWOOD, NJ — A Philadelphia woman who was punched by cops and violently arrested last year in Wildwood is suing three officers and the city. Emily Weinman filed suit Monday in U.S. District Court in Camden, saying she was "brutally and senselessly assaulted" by police in front of her 18-month-old daughter on Memorial Day weekend in 2018.

Wildwood officers were trying to identify the owners of alcoholic beverages near Weinman's beach blanket. She refused to give them her last name. Police allege she hit and spat at them.

A nearby beachgoer filmed an officer punching Weinman in the head as she lies in the sand with her legs flailing. "You're about the get dropped," one of the officers told Weinman just before police grabbed her. The video went viral.

The lawsuit names Officers Thomas Cannon and Robert Jordan and Lieutenant Kenneth Gallagher, along with the city. The suit — filed by the Bonjean Law Group of Brooklyn — seeks unspecified money for physical and emotional damage and asks that the officers become banned from law enforcement.

"With no legal justification, defendants Cannon and Jordan assaulted plaintiff for no other reason than she refused to provide her last name to the beach patrol officers as they attempted to investigate the ownership of a few unopened bottles of Twisted Teas that were propped against a cooler near (the) plaintiff's beach blanket," the suit says.

Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano told The Press of Atlantic City on Monday that city officials hadn't seen the paperwork for the lawsuit but will handle it properly when they do. The three seasonal officers involved in the arrest did not face criminal charges.

The Cape May County Prosecutor's Office indicted Weinman on assault charges in September for the Memorial Day incident. She was also charged with resisting arrest, throwing bodily fluids and obstruction.

But all charges were dropped except one count of disorderly conduct, to which she pleaded guilty in February. She was sentenced to a year of probation and a one-year ban from Wildwood. Read more: Woman Punched By Cops Banned From Wildwood For 1 Year

Following the trial, her attorneys, Steve Scheffler and Stephen Dicht, did not rule out future civil action by Weinman against the Wildwood officers, according to philly.com.

Weinman, who was under 21 at the time, had gone to the beach with her daughter, her father and a friend. Weinman had acknowledged that she gave the police a "little attitude" when they approached her about alcohol on the beach, which she said was sealed.

"When the officers approached me on the beach, I got upset, and I said a few curse words," Weinman said during her guilty plea.

See video of the incident below:

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