BEAUMONT, Calif. (KTLA) -- A Beaumont police officer accused of permanently blinding a woman with pepper spray pleaded not guilty on Thursday to four felony charges.
A Riverside County grand jury last week indicted officer Enoch Clark on charges of assault with great bodily injury and other felonies.
On February 21, Clark sprayed pepper spray in the face of Monique Christina Hernandez, 32, while he tried to arrest her on suspicion of driving under the influence, the city of Beaumont said in a statement.
Clark allegedly fired the spray from 12 inches away using a JPX device, which shoots spray at speeds of 400 miles per hour and is supposed to be used at a minimum distance of five feet, Hernandez's lawyer Milton Grimes said in an interview.
"She did nothing to warrant him putting a gun -- a pepper-spray Taser gun -- to her forehead and pulling the trigger, causing her right eye to explode and causing severe nerve damage in her left eye to the extent that she's not [OP: can we presume that 'not' is a typo for 'now'?] been declared totally blind," Grimes said.
Hernandez suffered severe injuries to both of her eyes, Grimes said.
Clark is charged with assault likely to cause great bodily injury, assault with a less-lethal weapon, assault under the color of authority and use of force causing serious bodily injury.
He is now free on $50,000 bail.
Clark has been placed on administrative leave by the Beaumont Police Department.
WARNING: Source includes a picture of the injured woman's face, jsyk. It is not horrifically gruesome (at least to me?) but she definitely does not look fine.
A Riverside County grand jury last week indicted officer Enoch Clark on charges of assault with great bodily injury and other felonies.
On February 21, Clark sprayed pepper spray in the face of Monique Christina Hernandez, 32, while he tried to arrest her on suspicion of driving under the influence, the city of Beaumont said in a statement.
Clark allegedly fired the spray from 12 inches away using a JPX device, which shoots spray at speeds of 400 miles per hour and is supposed to be used at a minimum distance of five feet, Hernandez's lawyer Milton Grimes said in an interview.
"She did nothing to warrant him putting a gun -- a pepper-spray Taser gun -- to her forehead and pulling the trigger, causing her right eye to explode and causing severe nerve damage in her left eye to the extent that she's not [OP: can we presume that 'not' is a typo for 'now'?] been declared totally blind," Grimes said.
Hernandez suffered severe injuries to both of her eyes, Grimes said.
Clark is charged with assault likely to cause great bodily injury, assault with a less-lethal weapon, assault under the color of authority and use of force causing serious bodily injury.
He is now free on $50,000 bail.
Clark has been placed on administrative leave by the Beaumont Police Department.
WARNING: Source includes a picture of the injured woman's face, jsyk. It is not horrifically gruesome (at least to me?) but she definitely does not look fine.
Holy wtf.
Oh God! D8
I cannot even imagine the pain and suffering she is going through right now. jfc.
and like a dumbass I went and read the comments on the source and it's full of people talking about how this woman deserved it for being drunk and disorderly. /smh
I scratched 3/4 of my cornea last December; it was EXCRUCIATING. I cannot imagine what this poor woman is experiencing. It wouldn't even compare. D: D: D:
Edited at 2012-05-02 03:43 am (UTC)
brb, have to go deal with my new phobia of my eyeballs exploding.
He looked at me, and drew out his can from his hip and sprayed directly at me. I was at an angle to him and the spray hit my right eye and our three-year-old, who I was holding in my right arm. In the same motion he turned the can on my wife, who was holding our 10-month-old baby and doused both of their heads entirely from a distance of less than three feet.
write-up
Why do they need pepper spray to come out at 400mph? The militarization of the police in the US is a couple decades old now and I don't see change coming, even now that white people are affected.
Also any cop who uses that spray on a baby ought to be immediately fired, full stop.
If it's a condiment, then let's see them eat it on the air. Otherwise, they can shut up.
Did a yahoo search and found it. She is beyond flawless.
Why?
(edited for an extraneous 'not')
Edited at 2012-05-01 09:20 pm (UTC)
Unless there's a lot of pressure forcing it one direction, the spray tends to disperse all over the place, and that would mean a big puffy cloud of pain on many people, as opposed to a concentrated shot at one point where the perceived threat is.