A woman who alleged she was roughed up during a traffic stop in a Del Taco parking lot by Los Angeles police in a case captured on surveillance video filed a lawsuit against the officers involved.
Michelle Jordan was roughed up on Aug. 21 in Tujunga when she was pulled over for talking on her cell phone while driving, police said. While she was handcuffed, officers sat her down before one of the officers threw her head-first to the ground.
Surveillance video -- revealed first on NBC4 -- along with photos of her injuries, sparked outrage over the arrest. The officers' supervisor was later demoted.
Jordan, a registered nurse, filed her lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday.
The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, alleges excessive force, assault and battery, false imprisonment and negligent hiring, training and retention.
She names as defendants the two officers, Christopher Hajduk and Christopher Carr, and Capt. Joseph Hiltner, who at the time was commander of the Foothill Division.
The suit states that Hajduk is believed to be “one of the officers present during the LAPD's beating of Rodney King in 1991.”
The LAPD did not comment on the lawsuit, citing department policy against talking about pending litigation.
In an interview with NBC4 after the incident, Jordan said the humiliation of the experience was as bad as the physical pain.
"I was scared. I was very, very frightened and, to be honest, humiliated … To have two men who are larger than me -- and police officers to boot -- treat me that way was shocking," she said.
