NYC Woman Dragged Into Court On A Broken Leg, $10M Suit Says

QUEENS, NEW YORK — A Queens woman who says she physically dragged through the court system on a broken leg by cops who refused to believe she’d just received surgery is now suing the city for $10 million, court records show.

Jacqulyne Perrien filed in Brooklyn’s federal court Friday a complaint detailing an allegedly treacherous journey that included her being thrown into a police van face-first just days after she was hit by a car.

“[Police officers] threw Plaintiff MS. PERRIEN into the van abusively and unreasonably in retaliation to what [they] believed were lies told by Plaintiff,” the suit claims. “[She] was telling the truth the entire time about her freshly healing injuries.”

New York’s Law Department nor Perrien’s attorney responded immediately to Patch’s request for comment.

Perrien’s encounter with police began on Oct. 16, 2018, about 1 a.m., when she was struck in a Queens Village crosswalk and called 911, the suit says.

Medics rushed Perrien to Jamaica Hospital where doctors gave her “strong pain medication,” a blood transfusion and an X-ray that found she had fractured a bone in her left leg and her pelvis, law papers show.

As Perrien awaited surgery, a police officer arrived to question her about the incident and found her in a state of shock, the suit alleges.

“She was experiencing mind-bending pain and was semi-conscious at the time while getting ready for surgery,” the complaint reads.

“Ms. Perrien to this day does not remember what she was asked, what she said or what the Police Officer said during this police report.”

But Perrien does remember being handcuffed to her hospital bed as the officer explained police had a warrant for her arrest, according to the complaint.

The suit does not specify what charges faced Perrien, who believes she went into surgery handcuffed.

Perrien spent five days in the hospital after surgeons inserted a rod, pins and screws into her broken femur, the suit says.

On Oct. 22, Perrien was discharged into police custody with pain medicine and orders to use a rolling walker, the suit says.

Two officers whom the complaint describes as “very courteous” escorted Perrien from her wheelchair to a police car then to the 105th Precinct, where a chair was provided as she waited outside for a transfer to Queens Central Booking, legal papers show.

According to the suit, this is when the courtesy ends.

Two officers, not named in the complaint, arrived in a police van and demanded Perrien get into the back unassisted, the suit alleges.

Perrien tried to explain she couldn’t walk on her own, and pleaded with them to look at her medical records, but the officers refused to believe her, forced her to get up and then laughed her attempts to hop toward the van, the suit says.

When Perrien was unable to lift herself into the back of the van, they threw her face-first, the complaint alleges.

“Ms. Perrien went sprawling and screamed in anguish and pain as she hit the van and felt a click in her leg,” the suit reads.

“[She] immediately felt extreme pain, anger, confusion, physically and emotionally hurt, and degraded from being treated in this inhumane and abusive manner.”

When the van arrived at Queens Central Booking, the two officers dragged Perrien into the building as she pleaded for mercy, the suit says.

It was only after she set off a metal detector that the officers asked if she had any metal on her, and Perrien was able to explain a metal rod has recently been implanted in her leg, according to the complaint.

“They realized Ms. Perrien was telling the truth the whole time about still recovering from massive leg surgery,” the suit says. “[The officers] audibly cursed.”

A medic at the Emergency Medical Technicians office confirmed this assessment when he allegedly “expressed his disgust” and told the officers “he had never seen someone do something like this.”

But Perrien was not taken to the hospital until hours later, when a Queens Criminal Court judge agreed to postpone her arraignment so she could get medical attention, the suit claims.

“Despite their knowledge of [her] needs and condition, [the cops] then grabbed Ms. Perrien’s arms again and picked her up to drag her out of the courtroom,” the suit says.

“When the door slammed on Ms. Perrien’s leg, she immediately screamed in pain and agony.”

A year later, Perrien was still experiencing constant pain, the suit claims.

In early July 2019, a New York University Orthopedic Surgery Fracture Clinic doctor found a non-union fracture that required surgery, the complaint says.

Perrien’s left femur was still healing when her $10 million suit was filed in the Eastern District of New York Friday, according to the complaint.

The suit says Perrien lost 3 centimeters of mass on her left leg and an opportunity that might have changed her life.

Before the accident, Perrien had taken and passed an exam to enter the Fire Department of New York and was slated to take her physical exam in June 2019.