Pubdate: Thu, 05 Apr 2001
Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
Copyright: 2001 The Sun-Times Co.
Contact:  http://www.suntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/81
Author: Frank Main

FAMILY CLAIMS GIRL, 11, ROUGHED UP BY POLICE

The family of an 11-year-old West Side girl claims police pushed her 
face to a sidewalk, handcuffed her and kicked her because they 
mistakenly thought she was involved in a drug deal.

Plainclothes officers spotted Timia Williams talking to a man on the 
street near her home in the 600 block of North Central Park Tuesday 
and thought she was involved in a marijuana transaction, a police 
source said.

She ran when the officers approached, fell on the sidewalk and was 
handcuffed. Officers didn't find drugs and she was released, the 
source said.

"Relatives came out and chastised her for hanging out," the source said.

Neighbor Angela Sims gave a starkly different account. She said she 
was walking along North Central Park with laundry when she saw Timia 
running. "They hollered for her to stop," Sims said.

Timia was pushed onto the sidewalk--cutting her face--and an officer 
put a knee in her back and handcuffed her, said Sims, 31. Another 
officer--tall, with brown hair and wearing glasses--kicked her in the 
side, she said.

A third officer ordered Timia to stand up, Sims said.

"Timia said, `Why do you want me to get up? What are you going to do 
with me?' " Sims said.

As the girl sobbed, officers picked her up by her arms, Sims said. 
The officer who put his knee in her back unlocked the cuffs with a 
pen, she said.

A fourth officer searched the grass in a vacant lot, Sims said, but 
didn't recover any drugs.

Sims said the encounter was about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, but a police 
source said the incident occurred about 6:30 p.m.

Police Supt. Terry Hillard said police thought the girl, whose 
grandfather said she was an honor student, might have been carrying 
or selling marijuana. "Was she roughed up? I don't know. That was the 
allegation. We'll have to see what OPS comes up with," he said.

The Office of Professional Standards was investigating Wednesday 
after Timia's family filed a complaint with the department. Civil 
rights lawyer Standish Willis was consulting the family.

Timia, a sixth-grader at Laura S. Ward School, was treated at St. 
Elizabeth Medical Center for minor injuries and released, her 
grandfather, Larry Marshall, said.

Some neighbors were outraged Timia was suspected of involvement in drugs.

"I've never seen that girl affiliate with dope addicts," said Sam 
Thomas of Blue Jay Foods, the corner store that Timia visited before 
she was stopped.

Timia is large for an 11-year-old and the officers might have 
misjudged her age, he said.

"That's a nice little girl . . . If she saw grown men running toward 
her, she had a good, solid reason for running," he said.

Contributing: Fran Spielman
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MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe