A Letter To The Editor 8-16-12

Police Brutality/Excessive Force

On April 3, 2012 we were preparing to move out of our Ocean City home and went and stayed at the Alamo motel, while we were waiting for our new place to be ready. However, before we got there, I had called and asked how much it would cost to stay there from April 12th to May 3rd. Roscoe, the owner, told me $495.00, which includes all taxes as well. I paid for it over the phone and on the 12th we got there. Then on April 25th, Roscoe came to our room and knocked on the door and told us that we owed him a weeks stay starting April 26th or we have to leave. I reminded him of what he had told me on the phone and told him that it is not my fault you miss calculated weeks and that I didn't owe him for anything. He said, "you are right" then he proceeded to walk away. He returned 10 minutes later and asked my husband to go to the office with him regarding the previous conversation. He gets my husband, who is terminally ill and disabled but able to communicate just fine, to go with him. As soon as my husband walks into his office, Roscoe immediately starting yelling, screaming, and cussing at my husband and then punches him in his chest. My husband slammed his hands on his glass counter and then started yelling back at him. My husband then walked out of his office while Roscoe called the police having them show up not 5 minutes later.

A State Trooper, 4 officers from the Worcester County Sheriffs Department and a Natural Resource Police officer show up. The officers first went in and spoke with Roscoe and his office employee. Then they walk over and have my husband sit in a chair outside our room and hear our side of the story. We were told, "regardless if Roscoe miscalculated or not if he says you have to go, he can make you leave. This is a motel not a residential unit." Then my husband heard Roscoe say, "Your wife and daughter can stay, but you, meaning my husband, has to go." My husband said, "I have done nothing to you, what have I done that would make want me away from my family?" My husband then threw his hands up in the air and told officers that he is disabled and terminally ill and is too sick for this and it isn't right. I can 't take anymore then proceeded into our room. That is when the Sheriffs department officers move me out of the way, with our 3 y/o daughter on my hip and grabbed my husband, dragged him out of our room, threw him into the gravel road, one officer forced my husband face into the gravel, the other three jumped on top of him making his back and leg make a loud popping sound, then the State Trooper held down his other leg. My husband was being screamed at, pushed down on even for a couple minutes after. My husband told them repeatedly, "my knee is broke, my leg is broke, my back my back." They told him that nothing is broke and to get up or they will make him get up. He couldn't stand so they yanked him up and threw him down in the chair and proceeded to yell at him some more. Mean while all this was being done in front of my daughter, employees of the motel, and other tenants. Roscoe looked dead at my face and shrugged his shoulders with a smart grin on his face and said, "oh well, that's what he gets and I don't care."

One of the Sheriffs officers then picked my husband up off his feet, pulled him into our room and under his breathe he told my husband, "this is your fault, you remember that, it's your fault and you did this to yourself" and because of what happened my husband agreed with him afraid they would hurt him even more. My husband was never charged or arrested. An ambulance arrived on scene and took him to Peninsula Regional Medical Center. Sargent McGee from Worcester's Sheriffs Department was an escort to the hospital. None of the officers took any pictures, as they are required too. Internal Affairs was called and no return effort, on their part, was made. and my husband went in on a Friday and had surgery for his broken leg and knee on Tuesday morning. Now he has a steel plate for a knee and a leg with steel rods and bolts holding it together. They are still doing tests on his back. Plus he had rocks and gravel still coming out of his head a week after he came home from the hospital where they shoved his face into the gravel road. He was in the hospital almost another week before he was brought home by ambulance. My daughter didn't sleep thru the night for over a month after this happened because she would wake up crying for her daddy. What they did needs to be told, they need to be punished, and my husband and daughter need to be compensated for their actions. It was unnecessary, uncalled for, and just plain wrong!!!! They do not deserve to wear the uniform hurting a disabled terminally ill man and scaring a 3 year old little girl. My life has become that much harder because now my husband requires more attention, more appointments and everything else. We survive on SSDI for income and don't even own a vehicle. I would like for this to become a big deal because to me it is a big deal.

Cheri Ardi's and Family