Sheriff’s Office Seeks Dismissal Of OC Police Brutality Lawsuit

OCEAN CITY — The Worcester County Sheriff’s Office, named as co-defendants in a $1 million civil suit filed in July by a Virginia woman arrested while pregnant during a melee on the beach in 2013, this week filed a motion to dismiss the case on several grounds including the vagueness by which its unnamed deputies are attached to the case.

In July, nearly three years to the day since the 2013 incident, Dalima Palmer, now 27, of Dumfries, Va., filed suit in U.S. District Court against the Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) officer who allegedly tackled her to the ground while she was nine-months pregnant during a brawl on the beach. Also named in the suit is the OCPD, Chief Ross Buzzuro, two unnamed OCPD officers who allegedly denied her medical attention while she was in police custody and the Maryland State Police.

The Worcester County Sheriff’s Office is named as a defendant because two of its officers, named only as John Doe, may or may not have allegedly remained in Palmer’s hospital room against her wishes while she gave birth via C-section to her child as a result of the incident. Oddly, the complaint states the two officers who remained in Palmer’s room while she was giving birth could have been Worcester County Sheriff’s deputies, Maryland State Police officers or even OCPD officers. Because of the vagueness of that section of the complaint, and for other reasons including its immunity from being sued, the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office this week filed a motion to dismiss the case against it.

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