Carolyn O'Neal had been awarded $2.4m after being unlawfully arrested while naked and then tasered twice by police despite being restrained in a chair. Photo / Freemont Police Department
Carolyn O'Neal had been awarded $2.4m after being unlawfully arrested while naked and then tasered twice by police despite being restrained in a chair. Photo / Freemont Police Department
A woman has been paid US$2.4m ($3.4m) after she was unlawfully arrested while naked inside her apartment during a welfare check.
Carolyn O'Neal sued Fremont County Sheriff's office over her May 2014 arrest while at a sober living facility.
According to The Denver Post, deputies responded to concerns she mightharm herself.
O'Neal told the three male deputies she wasn't going to hurt herself, instead, was naked preparing for a bath.
But the officers didn't believe her and used a key to get into her apartment.
Carolyn O'Neal had been awarded $2.4m after being unlawfully arrested while naked and then tasered twice by police despite being restrained in a chair. Photo / Freemont Police Department
"This was an outrageous case," O'Neal's lawyer, David Lane, told The Denver Post on Sunday.
"Law enforcement officers who believed they were above the law got smacked down hard by a jury. And unfortunately, this costs the taxpayers of Fremont County a lot of money.
"But I hope it inspires the citizenry to demand accountability from law enforcement – otherwise, it's coming out of their pockets."
Charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest that O'Neal had faced were previously dismissed by a judge. Deputies have since admitted that she should have been taken to a hospital rather than a jail, KDVR reported.
"The police were called by management, her mother was dying, she was depressed and she made some offhand statement about 'things are going so great, I feel like I should drive my car off a cliff,'" Lane recalled O'Neal saying prior to her arrest.
