An April traffic stop in Northampton, Massachusetts, will soon lead to a legal claim against the city.
A Northampton police officer pulled over a 60-year-old woman for a missing headlight. The violent encounter that happened during this traffic stop was caught on tape.
The story was first reported by The Shoestring, with follow-up reporting by Dave Eisenstadter, managing editor at MassLive.
Carrie Healey, NEPM: Dave, I don't know about you, but I've been stopped late at night for having a light out and it didn't go at all like this. This April stop went sideways. What happened?
Dave Eisenstadter, MassLive: Yes. Well, it was clear that communication was a real issue. Officer John Sellew comes up to the car, identifies himself as a Northampton police officer, and almost immediately Marisol Driouech doesn't seem to understand. She's saying, “What?” She's asking questions.
English is not her first language. She's a Spanish-speaker. Rather than get an interpreter, which is what Northampton's police chief said that the officer should have done, he escalates things. He starts yelling. He eventually pulls her out of the car, tackles her to the ground. He also calls for backup. And when the other officer arrives, he sees the two people on the ground and uses pepper spray on Driouech.
Driouech is a 60-year-old Holyoke woman. This was late at night. She was alone, and this happened in Northampton. She has now hired a lawyer. And, together, she and her lawyer say that they hope their lawsuit will lead to a change in behavior by officers in Northampton's police department. So what did the lawyer tell you?
Yes. Well, Northampton has a process that it reviews these use-of-force cases. And immediately afterwards, the officer had to undergo some remedial communication training. That was scheduled over the course of June and July. In addition to that, a community complaint on June 12 — that initiated an outside investigation that was run by Comprehensive Investigations and Consulting. We're still waiting for the police to provide that full report. But they did share the finding that Sellew's use of force was reasonable and proportionate, and he was cleared of any wrongdoing in that case.
Dana Goldblatt, who is Driouech's attorney, really took issue with that. And what she said is that this is what we expect out of policing. You know, what she was eager to see is less policing. And she plans to present the city with a claim.
The video that was posted with this story. It was very difficult and very graphic. How many times did you have to watch it to report this?
I had to watch it a few times, and it is a difficult thing to watch. But it's important to understand that these events actually happened and it's important to report on them and give people an understanding about what this police incident was.
There are differing opinions on what should have happened here. Northampton Police Chief Jody Kasper, as well as the city's mayor, have both had very strong reactions to this incident. What did you report?
Jody Kasper, the chief, was clear. She said, “This should not have happened. Our community expects and deserves that we meet certain professional standards and in this case we did not meet those standards.”
The mayor, Gina-Louise Sciarra, was also very concerned to see the situation escalate. So you have these high-level officials in the city of Northampton who really didn't agree with what happened. At the same time, the officer himself, while he did receive some remedial training, was not disciplined in any way.
When I asked Chief Kasper about that, she said, "In this case we do not have allegations that were sustained. So in order for disciplinary action to be taken, we need to have sustained charges against one of our members. And they didn't have that in this case."
And so, what's next?
The claim is going to be presented to the city by Driouech's attorney over the next couple of weeks. There are six months in which the city has to respond to that. They may settle the claim. They may go to trial.
At the same time, we're looking to get this investigation report into the officer. And we'd also like to look at how this is happening in the rest of the state. How do you discipline an officer when the policing standards, as the chief says, don't meet the community standards?
