Upset that a young woman had cursed at them, Baltimore County police officers used information from the Motor Vehicle Association to track her down to her grandmother’s house where she lived.
The goal was to arrest Cierra Floyd on a charge of disorderly conduct, a common contempt of cop charge used by cops to punish people who have disrespected police but otherwise broke no law.
But when they arrived at the home to arrest Floyd on Friday, they say her 76-year-old grandmother, Rena Mellerson, interfered with the arrest so they had to arrest her as well. But it does not appear as if they even had a warrant to arrest her granddaughter.
A video recorded by a witness shows a cop leading Mellerson out the door of her home when a second cops comes running up and throws her to ground even though she was doing nothing to merit that. It was just needless escalation that police are trained to do to maximize full control.
Bu in this case, even Baltimore County Police Chief Melissa Hyatt said “the video is unsettling to watch” and has ordered an investigation but has not yet released body camera footage from the officers, according to WBAL-TV.
“My mother is a 76-year-old woman, lives alone, minds her business, never broke the law. She doesn’t even have a moving violation,” said Mellerson’s daughter, Barbara Mellerson. “For her to go through something like this is ridiculous, and every time she thinks about it, she starts shaking. I had to take my mother to the hospital.”
Rena Mellerson was not seriously hurt. She was handcuffed, arrested and taken into custody. Officers said she interfered with the arrest of her granddaughter on a charge of disorderly conduct a short time earlier at a different location, where police said the granddaughter cursed at officers and caused a scene. But officers did not arrest the granddaughter at the time, saying they didn’t see her leave.
Charging documents reveal one officer used Motor Vehicle Administration records to track her to her grandmother’s house.
“They tracked her down like she was a fugitive,” Barbara Mellerson said.
Officers made no mention of having an arrest warrant for the granddaughter, the family said. An officer used pepper spray and Tasers inside Rena Mellerson’s house, saying her granddaughter had moved toward him in what he called an aggressive manner. His foot was caught in the door.
Baltimore County police arrested Mellerson on charges of assault, interfering with an arrest and obstructing and hindering. It’s not uncommon for cops to charge a person with assault when they were the ones who did the assaulting.
Floyd, her granddaughter, was charged with the same plus the initial disorderly conduct charge for cursing at the cops. It would not be surprising if all the charges were fabricated to protect themselves from any scrutiny. Mellerson is considering suing.
Watch the video below as well as the news report.
