A woman picked up for DUI in the village of Skokie, Illinois is pressing federal charges after an officer hurled her into a concrete bench and shattered bones in her face, CBS-Chicago reports.
Plantiff Cassandra Feuerstein admits to pulling over to the side of the road while intoxicated and falling asleep at the wheel when she was arrested back in March, but acted compliant as police took her into custody.
Video footage of the incident shows an inebriated but unresisting Feurestein led to a holding cell by Officer Michael Hart. The trouble seems to occur after she is taken out of the room for a mugshot: Officer Hart is shown on the tape shoving Feuerstein face-first into a concrete bench.
“Apparently, I was not looking into the camera the way the officer wanted me to,” said Feuerstein.
While Feuerstein bleeds profusely, the officers on the tape provide toilet paper to staunch the flow. The cringe-inducing footage does not reveal the extent of the damage caused: The shove and subsequent collision broke several orbital bones in Feuerstein’s face and shattered her cheekbone, forcing her to get facial reconstruction surgery.
A titanium plate now sits in place of the smashed bones.
Officer Hart claimed in a report that Feuerstein resisted police to justify his use of force, but Cook County prosecutors dismissed his claim after reviewing video evidence.
(Photo Credit: Cassandra Feuerstein via Chicago Trubune)