A former MBTA transit police officer was found guilty of assault and battery after she pepper-sprayed a woman at a T stop in March 2014.
Jennifer Garvey, 34, was also found guilty of filing a false police report as a public employee, the Associated Press reports.
Garvey was previously acquitted of a civil rights violation charge. Mary Holmes, who filed the ACLU lawsuit against Garvey, said she witnessed the transit officer beat and scream at a black woman at an MBTA station.
When Holmes tried to intervene, Garvey knocked a cellphone out of her hand and doused her with pepper spray. The incident was captured on surveillance video, however.
“In response, Officer Garvey and her partner, Officer Alfred Trinh, pepper-sprayed Ms. Holmes in the face, beat her with a metal baton, and arrested her, handcuffing her hands behind her back while forcing her to the ground,” the ACLU said.
She was fired from her job with the MBTA.
“There was a severe lack of accountability,” said Carl Williams, staff attorney at the ACLU of Massachusetts. “Officer Garvey had a history of complaints that were regularly ignored. Police departments must police their own officers. That is what Ms. Holmes’ case is all about.”
Source: http://www.masslive.com