According to Odell Newton, she was charged with “obstruction” by a police officer from the Nassau Street Police Station, after he brutally slapped her on the left side of her face. She added that the charge of obstruction was “pinned” on her by the officer, when he realised that the assault was not warranted.
“The police officer was exchanging words with my aunt outside of my residence and I had put my hands in the air and laughed, because I didn’t know what was going on. This is when the officer came from standing in the car door and pushed me into the police car,” Mrs Newton said. “I asked the officer what is it that I did and he told me that I had stick my middle finger up at him, and I told him that I did not do that.”
The woman said she was placed in a room at The Nassau Street Station, where she was explaining to another officer that she was unlawfully brought into the station, because she had done nothing. At this particular time, Mrs Newton said the officer who had brought her into the station then drew his right arm back, as if he was going to punch her, but instead, gave her a “brutal slap” to the left side of her face.
“The other officer, who was sitting in the room, didn’t say anything. He just watched as I was slapped ,” she said. “And after I was hit by the officer, he left the room and came back about fifteen minutes later and said that he was charging me with obstruction.”
A doctor’s report, issued by The Public Hospital Authority, indicted that Mrs Newton received a soft tissue injury to the left side of her face. Moreover, the report indicated that she was seen eight days later by a physician, because she was complaining of numbness on the left side of her face, as a result of the injury.
Mrs Newton said she had to hire an attorney to show up to court with her a month ago-as a result of being charged with obstruction by the officer. However, she said that the officer did not show up to appear before the judge. In the event of the officers absence, she said the case was put off until yesterday, where a judge threw the case out because the officer failed to appear once again.
Mrs Newton said that she had filed a complaint against the officer with the complaints and corruption branch of the RBPF. In addition, she said she was victimised by the officer because he did not see her as a socially elite person.
After being “brutally attacked” in an “unacceptable manner,” Mrs Newton said that her physician said that the nerves on the left side of her face might have been affected, as a result of the attack. Moreover, Mrs Newton said that she is working along with her attorney to bring this officer to justice and to make him pay for her medical expenses and attorney fees, which were brought on by his “unwarranted attack” on her and his “false allegations of obstruction.”
By: LaShonne Outten, The Nassau Guardian
