Last September, an NYPD officer was accused of using excessive force to arrest a pregnant woman in Sunset Park during a violent street confrontation. Now, 44-year-old Colombian immigrant Sandra Amezquita is suing the city, saying that the beating forced her to give birth prematurely—and may result in further complications for her child.
Amezquita gave birth on December 15th, about a month before her due date. Activist Dennis Flores, who works with El Grito De Sunset Park (the group that shot the video of the incident), told the Post that doctors had warned that "she was losing fluids in her womb."
Amezquita, who was five months pregnant when the incident happened on Sept. 20th, had tried to intervene when cops were arresting her 17-year-old son, Jhohan Lemos, who allegedly had an illegal gravity knife clipped to his belt. After Amezquita fell to the ground belly-first, Mercedes Hidalgo approached the officers to tell them she was pregnant; as you can see in the video below taken by El Grito De Sunset Park, Officer Joseph Degen shoved Hidalgo, violently knocking her to the street.
Degen was taken off the streets and put on modified duty because of the latter part of the incident, but not because of his interaction with Amezquita. She also maintains that she was struck several times with a police baton during the arrest, though this was not caught on video.
