KANSAS CITY — A Christian County woman is accusing two City of Ozark police officers of using excessive force and falsely arresting her after a traffic stop.
In a lawsuit filed on April 23 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, Ruth Ann Eakins of Sparta claims Officer Scott Forrester and Corporal Derrick Hill threw her up against her white minivan and kicked her in the lower back after an April 23, 2013 traffic stop. Eakins was reportedly driving the van when the officers received a call that a white minivan left a home where a domestic disturbance possibly occurred.
The suit, which also names the city as a defendant in addition to the two officers, alleges that the officers made a traffic stop on Eakins’ minivan because it was white. After approaching her vehicle, Forrester reportedly asked Eakins to get out. While she unfastened her seatbelt, the complaint claims the officer “opened her door, pulled her out and then threw her up against the van, injuring her face, head and jaw.”
The complaint further alleges that Eakins was handcuffed and kicked in her lower back. She was arrested for DWI, taken to jail and released several hours later.
The lawsuit accuses the officers of stopping Eakins’ vehicle without probable cause and being “deliberately indifferent” to her constitutional rights. The suit also said the officers “unconstitutional conduct” caused Eakins to suffer “embarrassment and emotional distress.”
“The conduct of Forrester and Hill was reckless, malicious, and willful, and an award of punitive damages is necessary to punish Forrester and Hill, in their individual capacities and to deter them and others from the same or similar transgressions in the future,” the complaint said.
The suit also stated that the officers' actions were the result of St. Clair County failing to properly train its officers.
Eakins is being represented by Brandon C. Potter of the Corbett Law Firm PC in Springfield.