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A pregnant woman whom a Chicago police officer tasered during a parking dispute last week filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Chicago Police Department.
Tiffany Rent, 30, is eight months pregnant, but she says that did not stop a Chicago cop from using a stun gun on her in the parking lot of a Walgreen's in the city's Roseland neighborhood on June 5.
Rent was approached by police who had ticketed her for parking in a handicapped space. The police report says that Rent tore up the ticket and threw it at the officer, and in the ensuing altercation between police, Rent and her boyfriend Joseph Hobbs, a Taser was discharged.
The woman, charged with resisting arrest and simple assault, was taken to a nearby hospital that evening and released, but returned to another hospital the following day after she reported pain during her court appearance. Hobbs' elbow was dislocated during the altercation.
Rent's attorneys say their client's pregnancy was already a high-risk one, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. They are asking for the Chicago Police's policy on tasering pregnant women to be reviewed and investigated.
Rent's children, aged 3 and 9, witnessed the incident and are expected to be named as fellow plaintiffs in the lawsuit, ABC Chicago reports.
When asked about administering tasers on pregnant women last week, the Chicago Tribune reports that Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said: "Well, first of all, you can’t always tell whether somebody is pregnant. So, you want to use it where you are overcoming assault or preventing escape. That’s what it boils down to."
Rent claims that other officers at the hospital where she received treatment mocked her and said, "Go get Jesse Jackson," according to CBS Chicago.
The Independent Police Review Authority investigation into the incident is ongoing.