A Texas mother claims police handcuffed her and pinned her to a pile of fire ants after the pests bit her all over her face, according to a new lawsuit.
Taylor Rogers claims that when Santa Fe ISD police handcuffed her for a traffic violation in 2021, the officers twisted her legs, pig-tied her and buried her face in a fire ant colony. KHOU11 reported.
“Taylor Rogers was stopped by the Santa Fe Police Department for no reason, thrown to the ground in a fire ant nest in broad daylight, and held there screaming,” civil rights attorney Randall Kallinen said at a press conference Saturday. said. .
Dramatic police body camera footage from the arrest shows Rogers pinned down on the lawn after police tried to stop him for illegal spinning in a school parking lot and then fled. There is.
“It’s giving me poor blood circulation and I’ve got ants on my face,” Rogers is heard saying before he starts screaming in pain.
“Ants are on my face, please,” she cried. “How can you all do this? I have ants on my face! Let me go!”
Rogers claims that he was unable to dislodge the insects because he was handcuffed, and that police did not help him remove the ants.
Images of the aftermath showed numerous fire ant bite marks on Rogers’ face, neck, chest and shoulders, which her lawyer claimed amounted to “torture”.
Rogers added that the incident happened in front of her 9-year-old son, who was sitting in the back seat of the car.
Santa Fe ISD Police Chief Ruben Espinoza, one of two officers named in the lawsuit, disputed Rogers’ claims, saying the arrest images did not show the presence of fire ants in the grass. chanted.
Espinoza added that the body camera video shared by Rogers’ attorney was misleading and had a section cut out where the officer helped lift the woman off the ground after she agreed to calm down. Ta.
He told local media that Rogers was treated with “respect and dignity” throughout his arrest.
After his arrest, Rogers pleaded guilty to a charge of fleeing from police, alleging that he drove away from Espinoza, accusing him of crashing his car and startling him at gunpoint, causing him to panic.
But Espinoza said Rogers was furious and accused him of deliberately ignoring commands and fleeing from police.
Santa Fe police did not immediately respond to the Post’s request for additional comment.
