Police: Woman picked up on warrant

A woman who wants Newport Beach to pay her at least $1 million after she claims city police officers arrested her without cause, subjected her to verbal abuse and fondled her was picked up on an outstanding traffic warrant on the night the incident allegedly occurred, police said Friday.

The 23-year-old Long Beach woman was arrested on a Newport Beach city street about 10:40 p.m. Feb. 21 for a $1,500 traffic warrant for driving at an unsafe speed, Newport Beach Sgt. Evan Sailor said.

In a claim filed against the city of Newport Beach earlier this month, the woman alleges a Newport Beach police officer continually asked her what nationality she was and studied her facial features before arresting her without cause.

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

Newport Beach found the woman’s claim had no merit and has rejected it, Newport Beach Assistant Attorney Aaron Harp said Friday.

“People can say whatever they want in a claim, but that doesn’t make it true,” Harp said.

The city’s rejection of the claim leaves the woman free to pursue a lawsuit against Newport Beach, he said.

A phone call to the woman’s attorney, Allen Felahy, was not immediately returned Friday.