By the time Torry Reid’s face slammed into the pavement, she says she still had no idea why DeKalb County Police Officer Derrick Asberry had pulled her over, let alone why he had cursed at her, handcuffed her and slammed her to the ground.
It wasn’t until after her teeth were damaged and her face began to swell that Reid said she was told that she had been driving without her taillights on.
Reid and her partner, Elizabeth Toledo, said they are convinced that the August 2005 traffic stop escalated into a case of anti-lesbian police brutality because of Reid’s masculine appearance, and because Asberry is a cop with a history of conduct complaints.
“He thought [Reid] was a man at first,” Toledo said of Asberry initially stopping the car. “But when he saw it was a lesbian, his whole attitude seemed to change. It was like, he was going to prove a point.”
Beyond the occasional homophobic joke or remark, Reid never encountered danger because of her sexual orientation until she was stopped by Asberry.
“I don’t think I actually ever even imagined in my wildest dreams that someone would assault me [for being gay], and certainly not an authority figure,” Reid said. “I promise you, I feel like if my mother and my wife were not present, he probably would’ve killed me.”
While unfamiliar with the details of Reid’s traffic stop, DeKalb County Police Department spokesperson Keisha Williams said it is wrong for Reid and Toledo to blame their sexual orientation for the way they were allegedly treated.
“I think it’s not fair to assume that the way you look is the reason you were treated a certain way,” Williams said.
police brutality?
On Aug. 14, 2005, at about 10 p.m., Reid said she was driving along Flat Shoals Road near I-285 with Toledo and Reid’s mother, who was recovering from cancer surgery and had just picked up medicine from Wal-Mart.
“All of a sudden, I saw some blue lights,” Reid recalled.
When Asberry approached the driver’s window and asked Reid for her license and insurance information, Reid said she realized she didn’t have her wallet and offered to recite her license number to Asberry so he could check it in his system. Asberry allegedly refused to do so, ordered Reid to stand at the rear of the vehicle and handcuffed her arms behind her back while he ran her tags.
Throughout the traffic stop, Toledo, Reid and Reid’s mother said they repeatedly asked Asberry why they were pulled over; instead of answering the women, Asberry allegedly said he was taking extra precautions during the traffic stop because an officer was shot earlier in the night. When the women continued to protest, Asberry allegedly snapped.
“He said, ‘I’ve had it out of you,’ and then he took the back of my head and slammed it face-first into the cement,” Reid said.
Toledo sprang from the car in outrage, only to be ordered back in the car by Asberry.
“As he’s telling her that, he’s putting more force on my arm,” said Reid, who added that Asberry was also punching her in her back as she lay on the ground. When paramedics arrived on the scene, Reid was too afraid to go with them to be treated.
“I felt like they were in cahoots [with Asberry],” Reid said. “They were making gay jokes like, ‘You can handle [the rough treatment] though, right?’”
When the traffic stop was complete, Reid was issued a citation for driving without a license on her person, and disorderly conduct, both of which were thrown out in court. She also had intense swelling in her lips and face, a severely sprained shoulder and a new fear of law enforcement.
According to Asberry’s police report on the incident, he pulled the car over for driving without a taillight, and as he attempted to issue Reid a citation she kept arguing with other passengers in the car. In an attempt to “de-escalate” the argument, Asberry said he tried to escort Reid to his squad car, but she began pulling him and snatched away.
“Not knowing her intentions and fearing her safety and mine, I placed Ms. Reid on the ground and then handcuffed her using that force necessary to effect the arrest,” wrote Asberry, who added that Reid then began cursing at and threatening him.
On Feb. 2, 2006, Reid submitted an open records request to obtain a copy of Asberry’s dashboard video, but a week later she received a letter informing her that the video doesn’t exist.
“We don’t have cameras in cars,” Williams explained this week. “We’re trying to put those in our budget right now.”
When Reid and Toledo began exploring a lawsuit and internal affairs probe against Asberry, they discovered they weren’t the only citizens who complained about mistreatment from the veteran officer. Dating back to 1992, Asberry’s police file is filled with sanctions stemming from “insubordination and truthfulness,” “conduct unbecoming,” “inappropriate radio traffic,” “conduct toward fellow employees” and “excessive absenteeism,” according to copies provided by Reid. Some of the mistreatment detailed in the complaints is almost identical to the behavior Reid and Toledo attributed to Asberry, the couple pointed out.
‘extensive training’
“How could so many people have the same story?” Reid said.
Asberry remains a member of the DeKalb County Police force, a spokesperson confirmed this week.
“I want [the department] to assume some responsibility,” Reid said. “If you’re sending this guy to anger management and you’re still putting him out on the street time after time to harass innocent citizens, then he needs to be off the street.”
Reid’s attempt to file an internal affairs complaint and personal injury lawsuit against Asberry was botched by an attorney who allowed the two-year statute of limitations to lapse, but Reid hopes that going public with her story can lead to change within the DeKalb County Police Department.
But the incident happened before police Chief Terrell Bolton assumed office in January, and “in this administration, we do not tolerate officers mistreating our citizens at all,” Williams said.
“We just started an inter-personal relationship training,” Williams said. “We do extensive training in those areas so that we’re treating all people equally.”
Williams insisted that it is unfair to hold the police department accountable for incidents that happened before Bolton arrived as chief, but DeKalb County police officers were also accused of mishandling an incident this summer when a lesbian was accosted by bouncers at the popular gay nightspot Club Miami.
At the end of a night where she celebrated her 24th birthday and judged a gay contest at Club Miami, Sharif Williams was preparing to leave the club when she and her friends stopped in the women’s restroom. While inside, Williams said she was accosted by several bouncers who said people were complaining about men in the women’s bathroom.
no gay liaison
Williams said she pointed at her “Super Dyke” baseball cap and offered to show the bouncers her ID, but one of the bouncers continued pushing her out of the door, including a thrust that forced her to the ground.
Two bouncers jumped on Williams and “began to beat me on the floor mercilessly while my roommate repeatedly screamed, ‘Stop, this is a girl!’”
“The men continued to beat me about my head, neck, arms, back and legs,” said Williams, who, along with her roommate, was dragged outside to the parking lot where DeKalb County Police Officer L. Pierre was patrolling.
“I asked the officer why weren’t the men who beat me being arrested and he replied he did not see anything,” said Williams, who added that she had witnesses who saw the incident that left her with bruises and lacerations on her face.
When Pierre refused to take her statement for a police report, Williams filed an internal investigation complaint against him for neglecting his duty.
“Just because I look a certain way, I felt like [the police] felt like I should’ve got a beat down like I did,” said Williams, who identifies as a butch lesbian and transgender individual.
In a Nov. 6 letter to Williams, the internal affairs department exonerated Pierre of the complaint against him.
Both Reid and Williams said they would like DeKalb County to take complaints about its officers more sincerely, and possibly hire an LGBT liaison to help gay and lesbian victims navigate the system.
Atlanta is the only local jurisdiction with an officer that serves as an LGBT liaison, and DeKalb County has no plans to create a similar position, Keisha Williams said.
“As far as a liaison, the only one we have in the department right now is [for] Hispanic [residents],” she said.
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.jpg "Southern Voice - Torry Reid endured facial injuries in 2005 after being stopped by a DeKalb County police officer. (Photo by Bo Shell)")
