San Bernardino Police slammed handcuffed teen to the ground, lawsuit alleges

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An 18-year-old woman filed a lawsuit against the San Bernardino Police Department, accusing officers of assault and violating her civil rights.Erin Marie Cowser alleged in a lawsuit filed Friday that a police officer body-slammed her face-first to the ground while she was handcuffed during a May 2025 incident.Cowser accused the same officer of causing her face to hit the metal floor of his patrol vehicle.She said she suffered a concussion and memory loss, as well as other injuries, including cuts and bruises to her face and body.“I remember being terrified — and then I don’t remember anything at all,” she said in a written statement.

“I woke up hurt, confused, and being told things that I later learned weren’t true about what happened to me.”Cowser alleged in the lawsuit that the officer and his partner lied multiple times about the use of force that led to her injuries, a charge the department has denied.A spokesperson for the San Bernardino Police Department could not be reached for comment.But in a statement released two days after the incident, the department said the officer was attempting to handcuff the teen.“The officer was only able to place one of her hands in cuffs when she began actively pulling away and attempting to walk off from the officer when the takedown maneuver was used,” the statement read.Toni Jaramilla, the attorney for Cowser, said in a written statement that the police department “failed to correct the false narrative” even when videos proved the officer was lying.Jaramilla said the incident was captured by the officers’ body-worn cameras and witness videos.

The lawsuit “alleges that after the incident, officers falsely claimed Ms.Cowser’s injuries were caused by other juveniles, repeated those false claims to her family while she was hospitalized and continued the narrative internally,” Jaramilla said in the statement.

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