Jasper County (TX) Settles Case: White Officers Dragged Black Woman like an Animal into a Dark Cell & Denied Medical Attention after Arrest for Unpaid Ticket

From [HERE] and [HERE] A Black woman who filed a civil rights lawsuit after she was beaten by Jasper police officers has won a $75,000 settlement according to her attorney. Defendants (all are white) in the case include Jasper Mayor Mike Lout, Captain Gerald Hall, former dispatcher Lindsey Davenport, former officer Ricky Grissom, former officer Ryan Cunningham and the City of Jasper. 

Keyarika Diggles was arrested May 5 for an allegedly unpaid $150 traffic ticket. Her attorney, Cade Bernsen, said she was brutalized by former Jasper Police Officers while dispatcher Davenport watched without intervening.

"Ms. Diggles was dragged like an animal (by her hair) into a darkened "detox" cell, even though she was not intoxicated, and left battered and bruised on the floor for hours without medical attention. To add further insult to injury, she was then stripped naked and illegally searched," says a statement issued by the Bernsen Law Firm.

The incident was captured on surveillance video which was used as evidence in the case. According to Bernson on May 5, at approximately 8:30 a.m., police officers woke Diggles up by banging on the door of her home, stating they had a warrant for her arrest. 

Bernsen told Yahoo News that, once at the jail, Diggles was trying to arrange to pay the fine with her mother over the phone when Grissom abruptly ended the call. Footage shows the two arguing as Cunningham comes up behind Diggles and attempts to place her in handcuffs. The video shows the officers twisting Diggles' arms, grabbing her by her hair and shoving her head against a desk. She is then forced to the floor and dragged into a jail cell -all while her hands were tightly bound with handcuffs.  [MORE]

'Then while handcuffed spent the duration of her time in the isolated cell with an injured scalp where her hair was ripped from her head, a brace [orthodontic] lodged into her upper lip, a tooth dangling by its root and handcuffs ripping into her wrists,' said Diggles’ lawyer, Cade Bernsen. The above video is from two camera angles, no sound. 

After viewing the video, on June 6, 2013 the Jasper City Council voted unanimously to fire the two white police officers. The council also unanimously passed a motion to direct the city's district attorney to consider criminal charges against the officers. Nevertheless, no criminal charges have been filled. 

Jasper gained notoriety in 1998 after the brutal murder of James Byrd. Byrd's arm and head were severed after being dragged behind a pickup truck by Shawn Berry, Lawrence Russell Brewer and John King. The murder made national headlines and put a spotlight on the town's long history of racial divisions. Byrd's body was found by Rodney Pearson, Jasper's first black highway patrolman, who went on to become its first black police chief. Pearson was summarily fired after only 16 months on the job.

Bernsen, who also represents Pearson in a suit alleging the firing was racially motivated, told HuffPost that "Byrd's story has now come full circle."