PHILADELPHIA - A Falls Township police officer is accused of swerving his vehicle while the woman he arrested flew around the backseat without her seatbelt on.
Diane Gittlemacker and her husband filed a lawsuit Sept.30 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Falls Township and office Brian Detrick over injuries she says she sustained as a result of the incident.
Gittlemacker was arrested on Oct. 2, 2020. She says Detrick hand-cuffed her and put her in the back of his vehicle but failed to secure her with a seatbelt.
He "then intentionally operated the vehicle in a reckless and erratic manner, for the purpose of causing Plaintiff... personal injuries," the suit says.
"He accomplished this goal by... intentionally swerving and jolting the moving vehicle so that Plaintiff... was thrown around the interior of the caged portion of the police vehicle, causing her boy to slam into internal parts and components of the police vehicle."
The complaint makes a claim for assault and battery, among other counts. Jeffrey R. Lessin & Associates is representing Gittlemacker.