NYPD Cuffed Pregnant Woman In Labor To Hospital Bed: Lawsuit

PROSPECT LEFFERTS GARDENS, BROOKLYN — A pregnant woman struggled through a difficult labor while handcuffed by NYPD officers over a charge authorities later dismissed altogether, according to a federal civil rights lawsuit.

The lawsuit filed this week claims the then-21-year-old "Jane Doe's" treatment by police in December 2018 is part of a pattern of NYPD officers unlawfully shackling women.

It also asserts a female officer, who didn't have medical training, "inspected Ms. Doe’s vaginal area" while Doe was in holding cell complaining of pain from contractions.

"The NYPD made me feel less than human," Ms. Doe said in a statement. "I was sad and depressed for months after giving birth to my son. I just want these officers to be held accountable so something like this never happens to anyone else."

Doe is represented by Legal Aid Society and the law firm of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP.

The federal lawsuit details a harrowing situation for Doe, who was 40 weeks pregnant at the time.

"The NYPD arresting officers knew that Ms. Doe was extremely pregnant, remarking on it to her as they took her into custody," the lawsuit states. "There was no urgent need to arrest Ms.Doe that day; she was charged for an incident related to a family dispute with her mother’s boyfriend, an incident that had allegedly occurred more than a week earlier and the charge for which was later dismissed in its entirety."

Police shuttled Doe to a Manhattan police precinct and back to a Brooklyn's 75th Precinct covering East New York, the lawsuit states.

It's within that a precinct when — surrounded by inmates smoking cigarettes — Doe received a "humiliating" inspection by a female officer," the lawsuit states. Doe agreed to it because she believed it was only way she could get medical care, according to the lawsuit.

"Officer Jennifer Joe 1 callously told Ms. Doe that she was 'crowning' and joked that she had been trained to deliver babies and 'would deliver your baby right now,'" the lawsuit states.

Medics shuttled Doe to Kings County Hospital on the Prospect Lefferts Gardens border while officers shackled her to an ambulance bed, according to the lawsuit.

Doe remained shackled through her labor and only had them removed after nurses told police the cuffs prevented Doe from receiving an epidural, the lawsuit states.

"Ms. Doe was forced to deliver her son, 'Baby Doe,' alone without family members present," the lawsuit states. "The Defendant Officers denied her the presence of her family members, her
partner’s family members, and her obstetrician, by preventing her from timely notifying them of
the time and location of her anticipated delivery."

Police shackled Doe again after the birth, the lawsuit states. Her baby was taken to a NICU because he had jaundice and distress, while she had blood clots in her legs that nurses attributed to the cuffs, according to the lawsuit.

Officers only removed the cuffs after Doe was arraigned by video on a charge that prosecutors later dropped, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit lists several other cases in which NYPD officers shackled pregnant women. It lists eight police officers as defendants, as well as the NYPD and city.