Talk about your Monday from hell. Not only did Bridgett Nickerson Boyd's car break down on her way to work, but when she pulled over to the side of the freeway, a sheriff's deputy named Mark Goad pulled behind her, wrote her a ticket for driving on the shoulder, decided to arrest her, followed her to the hospital when her suddenly racing heart prompted a call to paramedics, then took her into custody again after she was treated by doctors and finally drove her to jail.
To make matters worse, Boyd claims in a lawsuit that the handcuffs were put on her wrists painfully tight - she claims she explained to the officer she had just had surgery on her hand - and that she was forced to listen to Rush Limbaugh "make derogatory comments about black people" all the way to the jail. Boyd is African-American.
Because of the incident, which occurred on Oct. 4, 2010, Boyd filed a federal lawsuit Monday against Goad and Harris County alleging defamation, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
''Deputy Goad was aware that Boyd had not committed a crime and her arrest was without probable cause," according to the lawsuit filed in Houston.
The magistrate who saw her while jailed apparently agreed and dismissed all charges.
So, when a woman pulls over with a smoking engine that is enough for one jackass to arrest her for driving on the shoulder. The stupidity is then further compounded by forcing her to listen to a racist rant by our favorite jackass, Rush Limbaugh. The only non-jackass (except for Boyd, of course) is the magistrate who had the common sense to see a problem and put a stop to it before it approached white-hot nuclear stupidity.
I have special sympathy for her regarding the handcuffs and her hands. This woman was far from a hardened criminal, there was no reason to ensure that she would be uncomfortable. They could have cuffed her lightly, put her in a supervised room, or even used an alternate means of control if they did fear she was a danger to others or herself. I despise people who abuse their power, and I believe that we should remove power from those who are incapable of wielding it with dignity and fairness.
This is harassment, pure and simple. From the arrest until the magistrate, that poor woman had suffered unnecessarily. Whether it was because she is black, female or both isn't relevant. What matters to me is that she did the right thing and was treated like crap throughout the ordeal.
Jackasses in the highest.
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