Dennis RomeroA woman who fell out of the back of an LAPD patrol car announced over the weekend that she was suing the department for alleged negligence.
Kim Nguyen, 28, had been eating, drinking and partying in Koreatown when she was arrested for allegedly being drunk in public, according to reports. The officers apparently put her in cuffs and sat her in the back of their black-and-white:
It happened March 17, says the Los Angeles Times: The cops in question, identified by the paper as David Shin and Jin Oh, actually stopped once to check out the group Nguyen was part of on Olympic Boulevard before circling back and arresting the woman.
She told reporters she was walking to a nearby coffee shop when the officers arrested her.
As the patrol car headed east on Olympic at Grand Avenue (presumably the officers from Koreatown's Olympic Division were taking her to jail downtown), video from the old Federal Reserve Bank building nearby shows that an LAPD cruiser behind it comes to a stop:
The woman had somehow come out of the car.
At attorney for Nguyen told reporters that cops gave an explanation to paramedics that doesn't hold up: That they had accelerated from a stop when she somehow fell out.
The lawyer, Arnold Casillas, says that the story isn't supported by the video, which appears to show the cruiser going through the intersection at normal speed.
What were the officers allegedly hiding?
Video then shows the woman on the ground as cops surround her. Nguyen says she was put in a coma for six days and woke up with her mouth wired shut.
The LAPD had no comment.
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