Denise Stewart, 48, opened
her Brownsville apartment door to NYPD officers, who heard shouting coming from
inside the home, police said. When Stewart, who was wearing only a towel, tried
to close the door, cops yanked her into the hallway. Stewart and another
daughter, Diamond Stewart, 20, were later charged with assault.
A Brooklyn grandmother who
had just taken a shower was dragged from her apartment by about 12 cops who
then stood by for more than two minutes while she was naked in the hallway,
according to video that emerged Friday.
Denise Stewart was in her
Brownsville apartment on July 13 when police — responding to a domestic
disturbance call at the building — pounded on her door at 11:45 p.m. and
demanded entry.
Stewart, 48, cracked the
door wearing only a towel wrapped around her body and underpants — and was
yanked into the hallway by cops over the screams of her family and neighbors.
The video shows a chaotic
scene as a dozen or so male officers burst into Stewart’s apartment, while
several others struggle to subdue and cuff the nearly naked woman in the
hallway outside.
Stewart’s towel got lost
in the scuffle, leaving the grandmother dressed only in underpants.
“Oxygen, get my oxygen,”
the mother of four can be heard saying to the cops, as they propped her bare
body against the wall.
A cop shouts, “OK, OK,”
and darts out of the screen.
Neighbors videotaping from
the stairwell started shouting as Stewart, who has severe asthma, fainted and
fell to the floor.
“Yo, her mother got asthma
...y’all wicked, y’all f------ wicked,” shouted one woman.
“Her asthma! Her asthma!
Her asthma,” screamed another woman.
For approximately two
minutes and 20 seconds, Stewart was bare-breasted in the hallway as additional
police officers tramped up the stairs and through the hallway, glancing at her
as they passed by.
When cops hauled Stewart’s
two sons and two daughters out of the apartment and cuffed them, a female cop
finally draped a white towel over Stewart’s exposed torso.
Reached at her home
Friday, Stewart told the Daily News she was traumatized.
“It’s disgusting and
embarrassing. I’ve been married 16 years. It took my husband 10 years to see my
nakedness,” she said.
“I didn’t do nothing
wrong,” she said, crying as she recounted the ordeal.
The NYPD said they’d
gotten a 911 call to the Kings Highway address but didn’t have an apartment
number.
They heard shouts coming
from Stewart’s apartment. When they knocked, she told them they had the wrong
place and tried to shut the door, police said.
Stewart’s 12-year-old
daughter had “visible injuries” to her face, cops said. She told officers her
mother and older sister beat her with a belt, police said.
Family members tried to
prevent them from arresting Stewart, who bit an officer’s finger during the
struggle, police said.
Stewart's lawyer, Amy
Rameau, said she was told by a Legal Aid attorney also assigned to the case
that the 911 call came from a different apartment on an upper floor — and cops
went to Stewart’s door by mistake.
Cops removed the
12-year-old from the apartment and say she refused to get into the police car
and kicked the door. A police spokesman said the child kicked out one of the
police van’s windows, with the broken glass cutting the chin of one of the
cops. The cops were treated at local hospitals and released.
Denise Stewart was charged
with assaulting a police officer, and — along with her oldest daughter, Diamond
Stewart, 20, — resisting arrest, acting in a manner injurious to a child and
criminal possession of a weapon.
Stewart’s son Kirkland
Stewart, 24, was charged with resisting arrest. The 12-year-old was charged
with assaulting a police officer, criminal mischief and criminal possession of
a weapon.
Diamond Stewart’s
4-year-old son was also pepper sprayed, the family said.
“They manhandled (Stewart)
and behaved in a deplorable manner,” Rameau said. “She feels completely
mortified. This is about human dignity.”
The city’s Administration
for Children’s Services was called to investigate but didn’t find any evidence
of neglect, said Rameau.
“There were no injuries to
the child as alleged in the complaint,” the lawyer said.
A police spokesman said
the incident is under investigation by Internal Affairs.
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