Pregnant Woman Violently Arrested At Harlem Store, Suit Claims

HARLEM, NY — A pregnant woman says she was unfairly arrested by police on a false shoplifting charge at a Harlem department store, then subjected to racist and sexist epithets while being held in custody.

The allegations were made in a new lawsuit against the NYPD filed in state court Monday by the woman, Tyleeha Carter. It stems from an incident in March 2018, when Carter stopped into the Modell's Sporting Goods store on West 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

Intending to purchase a sweater, Carter claims that she was soon stopped and searched by a Modell's security guard who accused her of trying to steal something.

After the guard called the police, three officers arrived and handcuffed Carter, who at the time was four months into a high-risk pregnancy, her suit contends. She was taken to the NYPD's 28th Precinct in Harlem, then brought to central booking in Lower Manhattan, where she was detained with "an all-male population," she says.

While being stood up against a wall, Carter began to feel ill and asked for medical attention, but officers responded by telling her to "shut up," she said. After briefly being allowed to sit down, Carter says she was then "aggressively yanked out of the chair" by the metal chain linking her handcuffs, causing her to cry out in pain.

At that point, Carter says the officers yelled "racially and sexually derisive remarks" at her, at one point calling her "a broke Black b----h" and prompting male prisoners to shout out in her defense, she claims.

Carter was eventually treated for a fractured hand at Bellevue Medical Center.

In her lawsuit, Carter contends that officers broke the law by unlawfully searching and arresting her, used excessive force, and violated disability protections she was afforded as a pregnant woman.

The NYPD declined to comment on a pending lawsuit. Modell's is also named as a defendant in the suit, though the 125th Street store has since closed.

This week's suit is not Carter's first attempt to litigate the March 2018 arrest. Another suit that Carter filed in federal court was dismissed in May after she chose to take the claims to a state court instead.

Patch writer Kathleen Culliton contributed to this report.