Driver claims police abused her

A Long Beach woman wants Newport Beach to pay her at least $1 million for the “severe emotional distress” she claims she suffered at the hands of city police officers who allegedly asked her what nationality she was, arrested her without cause and fondled her during a search.

In a claim filed against Newport Beach on Aug. 10, the 23-year-old woman alleges a city police officer signaled her to pull over her car about 10:30 p.m. Feb. 21 in Newport Beach, although she claims she was in compliance with all traffic laws.

The Daily Pilot will not identify the woman, because she claims to be the victim of a sexual assault.

In public documents, the woman claims the police officer asked her in a threatening tone, “Where are you from?” when she rolled her car window down.

In her claim, the woman alleges the officer yelled at her, demanding she tell him what nationality she was.

After the woman “politely” responded that she was an American citizen, the officer shined a flashlight into her face, according to the claim.

“During this time, [the officer] appeared to be studying claimant’s facial features,” the claim states. “After conducting his evaluation of claimant’s face, [the officer] loudly announced in an extremely sardonic tone, ‘Sure . . . you’re white!’”

The officer then asked the woman to get out of her car, at which time he placed her under arrest and put her in the back of his police car without any probable cause, according to the claim.

The claim goes on to allege the officer and other police officers at the scene laughed when the woman complained that the handcuffs were hurting her wrists.

The woman also alleges she was subjected to “an extremely invasive and humiliating physical search” and interrogated for hours.

“During this ‘search’ claimant was ‘felt up’ by a very large Caucasian police officer in a manner that made her feel like she was being sexually assaulted,” the claim states. “Specifically, the searching officer pressed her body very close to claimant’s and began breathing heavily on her neck in a suggestive fashion.”

Police officers at the station continued to ask the woman “where her parents were from,” according to the claim.

The woman was detained in a Newport Beach jail cell for more than an hour, until a friend secured a $1,500 bail bond, the claim states.

Newport Beach police officers never informed her of her rights during her detention, according to the claim.

A Daily Pilot search of court documents found no record of any criminal charges stemming from the woman’s February arrest.

When reached by phone Wednesday, the woman declined to comment on the matter and referred all questions to her attorney, Allen Felahy.

Felahy could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.

Newport Beach City Atty. David Hunt also could not immediately be reached.

Newport Beach Sgt. Evan Sailor, a spokesman for the department, said he could not comment on the matter.