The city of Allentown and police officer Jason Ammary are named as defendants in a lawsuit involving a 14 year old girl being tasered. The issue took place back on September 29 in front of Dieruff High School. An edited video of the incident was released for the lawsuit, which shows Keshana Wilson walking towards her car on the 800 block of Washington Street, according to NBC 10 Philadelphia.
Then the video cuts scenes, to show Officer Ammary struggling with the teenager on the side of her parked car. The officer appears to be shoving the girl against her car until the girl pushes her forearm against the officer’s face. The officer then backs off and fires his Taser at Wilson’s groin. She collapses to the ground as school security officers arrived. One of the officers can be seen on the video leading a teenage boy away in handcuffs.
Charged with aggravated assault on an officer, simple assault, inciting a riot and resisting arrest, the girl spent 21 days in juvenile detention. When she appeared in juvenile court she was found not guilty of assault and riot but was found guilty of disorderly conduct and for being a pedestrian on the highway.
Richard J. Orloski, an attorney for the girl, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on behalf of the girl’s mother, Victoria Geist. The lawsuit claims that the police officer used excessive force against the girl.
“Tasing can be lethal, people die from Tasing,” said Orloski.
According to the lawsuit, there is over one minute and 40 seconds of video missing. The released video does not show the officer and the girl’s confrontation or what caused the confrontation.
“She said that she did not strike this officer, that he choked her,” said Geist. “She said that she was unable to breathe.”
The Allentown Police Department claims Wilson was inciting a group of people nearby and that she was cursing loudly. When the officer reached in to arrest her she twisted away from the officer, according to the department via The Morning Call. As Ammary leaned her against the car to place cuffs on her she elbowed him in the chin and continued to resist arrest. Police from the department deemed that the use of the Taser was appropriate.
The lawsuit states that officer Ammary aimed the weapon at Wilson’s body in lower areas because she was using her backpack to block the Taser. On the other side of things, the video shows that Wilson’s upper body was exposed. The lawsuit also mentions that the police report claims that hundreds of students were blocking traffic to the road when the incident occurred. Contrary to that report, the video only shows a small amount of students in the street.