Woman alleges Derek Chauvin and another officer used excessive force on her in lawsuit
A woman is suing ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, his former partner, Ellen Jensen, and the city of Minneapolis, alleging the officers used excessive force on her just months before Chauvin murdered George Floyd.
The plaintiff, Patricia Dawn Welch Day is seeking $9 million in damages from Chauvin, Jensen and the city.
Day claims that on Jan. 17, 2020, Chauvin and Jensen pulled her from her vehicle and threw her onto the ground in the middle of the street, fracturing her tooth, injuring her arm and shoulder, and causing “other significant injuries.”
According to the lawsuit, Chauvin then handcuffed Day and pressed his knee into her back — similar to the restraint he used on Floyd.
The interaction began when someone called 911 to report an intoxicated person in a vehicle outside his home on 41st Avenue South. The caller said he was worried that the woman, later identified as Day, would try to drive away and he wanted officers to “prevent that,” according to the lawsuit.
Day claims that the City of Minneapolis has refused repeated requests to release the body camera footage of the incident.
The officers claimed that they ordered Day out of the vehicle, but a judge who watched the body camera video concluded that they hadn’t given Day any orders prior to pulling her out of the vehicle, the lawsuit says. Day claims that officers also never told her that she was under arrest.
A third officer came to the scene and told Day that she was under arrest for driving while impaired. Her blood-alcohol concentration was found to be 0.25.
Day claims that she complained about her injuries to the officer and asked for medical attention, but none was given.
The lawsuit states that Day spent around two and a half days in Hennepin County Jail due to it being a holiday weekend. Day’s husband came to visit her and noted that she “looked beat up.” He took photos after her release, which show bruising on her left arm.
Day also claims that Chauvin “lied about his actions that evening and omitted the true extent of his assault” in his report on the encounter. He also omitted that he knelt on Day’s back in the report, as well as made no mention of her injuries, the lawsuit says.
Day says that Jensen’s report was “just as misleading” as Chauvin’s. She also notes that neither officer filed a use-of-force or injury report.
Day was charged with two counts of third-degree DWI in connection with the incident. She says that Assistant Minneapolis City Attorney Annalise Backstrom compromised for a fourth-degree DWI due to the officers’ conduct.
Backstrom is quoted in the lawsuit as saying, “I just want to make it clear that my office and myself don’t condone the way that the interaction went down in this particular case.”
As for the compromise, the lawsuit states that Backstrom said, “… which is something that we usually
never do for someone [who] tested at a point 25, but as a compromise because of how she was treated, that was the offer that was extended.”
Due to the encounter, Day says she has increased anxiety and has been diagnosed with major depression disorder.