Baltimore County police are investigating allegations from a 20-year-old Pikesville woman who claimed a county officer groped her after arresting her for failing to obey a lawful order in June.
The woman, Keema Kelley, who asked that her name and photograph be published so she could bring attention to the case, said the officer tossed her against a squad car and touched her in a sexual manner.
“I told him I didn?t like that ? ?get off me; don?t touch me,? ” she told The Examiner.
Novelette Anglin, Keema?s aunt, said she saw the abuse.
“Her top came off and she was trying to use her teeth to pull it up,” she said.
Baltimore County police spokesman Cpl. Michael Hill said police responded to a call for a unruly crowd, and that Kelley was asked twice to leave the scene and did not obey.
“She was asked to leave twice and she refused, after which she was arrested for failure to obey a lawful order,” he said.
Hill said the matter is under an internal police investigation. The name of the officer was not released.
Kelley said she was assaulted after she questioned the officer about why he forced her cousin to lay down on the sidewalk at the Cedar Towers Townhouse complex near Pikesville where she lives.
“Two seconds later he was up in my face telling me to leave,? she said. “As soon as I turned around and walked away, he grabbed me by my arm.”
Then it turned ugly, Kelly said.
Kelley said she was thrown down on the hood of a police car by three officers, her arm bent behind her back.
“I felt the taser gun on my face and he asked me, ?Do you want to get tasered?? ” she said. “I don?t understand why they needed three officers. I?m only 95 pounds.”
After seven hours in custody, she was charged with failure to obey a lawful order and lying to an officer about her name and subsequently released, Hill said.
A trial date for her has been set for July 18.
