I was an unfortunate victim of police brutality in the city of Brecksville, Ohio on November 3.
I had been helping my friend, Victoria Cross Cireddu run for Mayor against Jerry Hruby and she had been having problems with threats and a letter from Mayor Hruby. I had represented her at a few meetings which were held in Brecksville as her campaign manager and it was quite obvious that many had gotten to know me through that campaign.
She was told to stop campaigning and was prohibited from going door to door, signs on lawns, no distribution of literature without her being present, etc making it near impossible for her and for me to campaign. She ignored those demands and within a few days near Halloween, she had a small explosive thrown in her front hallway door which partially caught her hallway on fire.
The day before election on November 3 a Brecksville police officer by the name of Ptl Andrew M. Bardwell was sitting in a Brecksville Police cruiser near Ken Mar Road in Broadview Heights, Ohio. My daughter and I passed him and wondered why he was not working in Brecksville when Brecksville residents were paying him.
My daughter and I were to meet my son in the parking lot at Millside Center in Brecksville, because my son went to make a deposit at Charter One in Broadview Hts and I had to go to Fifth Third Bank in Brecksville, so my daughter and I (who were in the same car) decided to meet my son at Millside Center in Brecksville.
While we were parked in the parking lot at Millside Center, I saw my son drive in to meet us, but behind him was a police officer following him in his cruiser. I went to make the night deposit first and then decided to walk over to the scene to see what was going on. I had known many police officers in Brecksville since I had lived there for 18 years and even baked for them frequently since I had been taking care of my paralyzed mother for a number of years at my home and the police department frequented my home for the many 911 calls that were placed for my mother.
As I walked over on the right hand side of my son's truck where the police officer was and directly in front of the police car, I asked what my son did. I identified myself as his mother and this police officer went ballistic on me shoving me so hard, that I flew to the back of my son's truck.
I was appalled and asked what his name was and told him that I wanted to file a report on him. I also said at that time that I would have his job for what he did. I was not able to understand his name; I had never seen him before. A Lieutenant arrived who knew my daughter (since my daughter had graduated from the Police Academy) and knew me as well and took a report at that time. He told us that it was the first day on the job for Ptl Bardwell.
When the Lieutenant asked Ptl Bardwell what my son did wrong, Ptl Bardwell said he accelerated before the 50 MPH speed limit on Route 82 (note: this 50 mph speed limit on 82 is in Broadview Heights, not Brecksville). The Lieutenant rolled his eyes and placed his head on the side of window while talking to my daughter and I and he gave me a report to fill out and then asked me how the incident happened and how he pushed me.
Afterwards, I went to Marymount South Emergency room in Broadview Heights and was given an anti inflammatory shot followed by many months of therapy and thousands of dollars in doctor and therapy bills. Marymount South said they needed to file a report stating what this police officer did to me to I believe the State of Ohio. The doctor at the emergency room clearly saw the extensive injury that Ptl Bardwell inflicted upon me.
Needless to say, I was not able to help my friend campaign the next day for mayor. Was this a coincidence that this happened the day before election day?
Brecksville Police never contacted me to take any kind of investigation on behalf of this police officer. As a matter of fact, they dropped the entire case.
In January an erroneous story was written up about me in the Brecksville Magazine by Brecksville's Law Director Paul Grau. This article falsely stated that I was loud and abusive and giving a very incorrect story as to what had happened on that evening. The article went so far as to say that I was examined by Brecksville's insurance agency and I was found to have nothing wrong with me. I never heard from anyone from any insurance agency, nor did anyone examine me from Brecksville.
I have thousands of dollars in bills from this incident from the emergency room, rehabilitation and the like. The article stated that I waited one day before the statue of limitations was up before suing the city. The reason for this, was because the city refused to correspond with an attorney that I had retained, Scott A. Rilley from Akron, Ohio and the city refused to send a police report to him (as per Mr. Rilley), so we never knew the police officer's name and had to finally sue the police officer as John Doe, because my son never received a ticket; thus, we had nothing with Ptl Bardwell's name on it.
Mr. Rilley originally filed in Cuyahoga County, but Brecksville had this case moved to Federal Court where Judge Donald C. Nugent took over. I appeared with my daughter in court once to speak with the Judge and after hearing my story, the Judge said if things happened the way I said they did, then I had a case and he was not going to dismiss it.interesting to note, when I suggested that the city view the police car's camera, I was told the camera was broken.
Shortly afterwards, the case was dismissed, but I had not known this. Mr. Rilley took it upon himself to never contact me in spite of my many calls and faxes to him. As a matter of fact, he would not even correspond with any of my doctors, therapists, insurance company, or anyone!
I was beginning to think he passed away, so I filed a complaint with the Akron Bar Association to see where my case stood. I was shocked to have heard (through written correspondence from Mr. Rilley to the Akron Bar Association) that my case was dropped a year ago and Mr. Rilley failed to inform me of this!
I could not understand this, because we had left on good terms. We had not had any confrontations, or any miscommunications at all for him to have stopped communicating with me. This caused a great deal of problems for me, because even if I wanted to appeal the Judge's decision I could no longer, due to the fact that the statute of limitations was up.
While at the Akron Bar Association, I truly felt that Brecksville had threatened Mr. Scott Rilley and not wanting to cause any more problems for Mr. Rilley, I told the Bar Association that I did not wish to have anything done to him, but I came to them, because I wanted to know the status of my case.
The case was dropped and nothing was done to him, but I never found out why he would never contact me. After the Akron Bar Association dropped my complaint (per my request) I was shocked to find out that I had $1,600.00 in bills that were not covered! I am now stuck with these bills, that were caused from this police officer's actions and Attorney Scott Rilley and his refusal to communicate with me as his client.
I strongly recommend before retaining Mr. Rilley to seek another lawyer who will be more responsible with his communication with his clients and their creditors.
Peggy
Brecksville, Ohio
U.S.A.
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