Texas Woman Sues Del City Police For Excessive Use Of Force

A Texas woman and her attorney have filed a lawsuit against the Del City Police Department.

She claimed an officer assaulted her, resulting in a broken leg. The officer’s actions were captured on a hotel camera.

Del City police officials tells News 9 they cannot comment on the incident due to the pending civil lawsuit. They sent the initial police report that dated back to May 19, 2020.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Candace Jefferson, her kids, and other family members travelled from Texas to visit a sick relative. They all stayed at The Springhill Suites in Del City.

“The hotel clerk came to the room and told us that we were being too loud and that she had some complaints,” Jefferson said.

Jefferson said the group went outside to a patio area, not knowing the hotel front desk employee called police to have them escorted off the property for being loud during "quiet hours."

“We were walking in the lobby and immediately he started approaching,” Jefferson said.

Jefferson asked the officer if she was being detained and he told her, ‘No.’ The officer followed her up the elevator and to the room.

“He started approaching me in a fast pace with his hand on his gun and told me he was about to tase me,” Jefferson said.

The officer noted in the police report that Jefferson ignored his verbal commands, and he did a leg sweep to get her on the ground, as seen in video from the hotel. Jefferson said he broke her knee and caused other injuries.

She was arrested and booked into jail for public intoxication and obstructing an officer.

“It just escalated so quickly for nothing,” attorney Demario Solomon-Simmons said. “There was no reason for that type of physicality.”

Jefferson and her attorney named the City of Del City and the hotel’s management in a lawsuit filed last month. They are suing for the use of force that caused Jefferson's injuries and trauma.

“For her children to see this, to see their mother in handcuffs,” Solomon-Simmons said. “Like this in pain, in agony. It was very traumatizing for Candace and for the family.” 

Jefferson's attorney said she was not armed and had a legal right to stay at in the hotel room she paid for.