Pregnant Motorist Allegedly Talking on Cellphone Hogtied by Officers Gets $250,000

[kellyhound]

Pregnant Tamara Gaglione, 30 from Los Angeles who was brutally hogtied by California Highway Patrolmen in August 2011 after being pulled over for chatting on her cell phone while driving has finally received retribution in the form of a $250,000 settlement.

According to the LA Times, Tamara Gaglione, 30, was hauled away and charged with misdemeanor evading and resisting arrest and driving on a suspended license.

Those charges were dropped, however, once Gaglione's terrible treatment was revealed in footage from the cruiser's video camera.

For the additional offense of driving while using a cell phone, Gaglione plead no contest.
The footage captured from the police cruiser shows Gaglione's minivan weaving through Los Angeles traffic and eventually pulling to a stop on the shoulder of the congested 101 Freeway.

Gaglione is seen exiting her car and standing motionless, staring dazedly at the the camera.

'I'd never seen a gun for real before,' Gaglione reportedly said later. 'I just froze. I was scared they'd shoot me.'

According to the patrolmen who pulled her over, Officers Daniel Hernandez and Roberto Martinez, Gaglione then raised her arm in an aggressive manner and refused to follow their orders.

It is unclear in the grainy video exactly how aggressive, if at all, Gaglione was toward the cops. What is clear, though, is that Hernandez and Martinez drew their weapons on the unarmed Gaglione as they approached her and forced her onto the ground.

Hernandez later claimed Gaglione did not tell them of her pregnancy until after she was on the ground, but Gaglione said she told the officers as they approached her.

Once she was face-down, Hernandez kneed Gaglione in the back, he said, to allow for Martinez to more easily handcuff her.

The scene became increasingly absurd as two more patrolmen came to came to the assistance of Hernandez and Martinez.

Footage then shows yet another two officers showing up to the scene, bringing the total number of police surrounding the pregnant, cuffed, and face-down woman to six.

Hogtied, Gaglione was subsequently taken away in a patrol car.

Gaglione filed suit against the department and the officers involved, but the video evidence that eventually won Gaglione $250,000 this past November was not immediately forthcoming.

Gaglione's attorney Howard Price claimed that Hernandez failed to check a box on the arrest report stating a video camera had, in fact, recorded the incident.

But the footage was eventually uncovered and the California Highway Police settled the case out of court and the officers were never required to testify, nor was the video ever submitted as evidence.

The CHP has not commented on the case and the two arresting officers remain with the force.

Meanwhile, the now far richer Gaglione has left Los Angeles with her now 9-month-old son and, she says, she'll be forever terrified by the police.

[Faline]

[AmericanIllusions]

Really sucks that when cops screw up YOU & I pay for it. Yea they went over-board but part of me got statisfaction when they slammed her to the ground (minus the pregnant part). Just exactly wtf was she doing? They're giving you direct orders and you stand there like a fuckin retard after that brief chase. Not worth 1/4 million dollars at all. Just fire the cops and stuff like this stops.

[MrRight]

what part of turn around did she not understand, shes such an idiot but the porkies were bigger idiots, if they wanted her to turn around then why take her down to the ground, why not use that energy into turning her around..?

[1Monster666]

cops she her as a threat.. pussys