Woman claims police assaulted her

Casey Miller placed under arrest by Ashland Police Department Feb. 17, 2007. Read Miller's statement of the incident. Submitted cell phone photo

Casey Miller was arguing with her younger brother at her home on North Laurel Avenue in the early morning hours of Feb 17.

A neighbor called the Ashland Police Department because of the disturbance. Two police officers showed up at her house. After an altercation, during which Miller was wearing only a towel, police took her to jail on charges of disorderly conduct and harassment.

The Jackson County District Attorney's office didn't pursue charges against Miller.

"When I reviewed the arrest report I didn't think it was sufficient to pursue criminal charges" said Assistant District Attorney Ginger Greer.

However, Miller says the case isn't closed yet. Angered by her night in jail, she plans to file an official complaint once she has an attorney who will represent her in a civil case.

She said police officers were unnecessarily rough with her — and added that she didn't even break the law, though she admits to fighting with her brother. She was preparing to get into the shower, when Ashland Police Officers Art LeCours and Mike Vanderlip arrived at her home.

"I had a towel wrapped around me because I knew I didn't do anything wrong," Miller said. "I thought, 'this will probably be quick.'"

Miller asked the officers what the problem was, and they told her to put her clothes on because she was going to jail. She said she was not doing anything illegal and refused to permit the officers in her home.

"I was confident that I'd done nothing to deserve going to jail over so I asked him defensively why I was going to jail and that's when things got out of line," Miller said.

Click on image to access a PDF of the full report.

She says LeCours put his hands around her neck, wrestled her to the couch and put all of his weight on her naked body.

"The officer forced his hands on my shoulders," she recalled. "I took my right arm and brushed at his arm to show him that he was being forceful and said let go of me. He then grabbed my right arm and twisted it behind my back and pushed me into my house restraining me onto my couch. At this point my towel had fallen completely off and I was naked and felt very violated in my person and home."

Police say they asked Miller to put clothes on while she was outside and she refused. They described her as visibly intoxicated and acting in a belligerent manner.

LeCours does not deny that he grabbed Miller, but says her towel never fell off.

When Miller would not go inside to get dressed, LeCours, according to a police report, said, "At that point I placed the palms of my hands on her shoulder in an attempt to redirect her back into the house. [Miller] then took her right hand slapped my left arm away, making physical contact. [She] had moved her left hand/arm towards me at which point I grabbed her left hand and brought it back behind her," he wrote in describing the same series of events that Miller described above.

LeCours said he alerted Miller to the fact that she was under arrest. Miller said she was never apprised of her Miranda rights, and was never told she was under arrest.

Ashland Police Deputy Chief Rich Walsh said he spoke with Miller about filing an official complaint, but she had not come down to the police station to do so.

"She would need to come down to tell us exactly what her issues are, and at that point, we would have to do an internal affairs investigation," he said.

Walsh said internal affairs investigations take a large amount of time. Sometimes, they show people in the department acted accordingly. Other times these investigations determine police officers didn't act accordingly.

"They are (a lot of work)," Walsh said. "But it's part of the job."

Ralph Temple, a retired attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said he had been in touch with Miller regarding her case, but it was too soon to recommend to the Portland ACLU whether the case warranted action.

However, Temple said, he has experienced cases where police officers believe it is an offense not to be polite to an officer. He said he would not make any judgments about Miller's case but did say "it sure looks funny."

Temple said often people will defend police because they have to put up with a lot of criticism. He said we should expect more from our police.

He said any incident where a citizen is arrested simply because they are being rude to an officer is worthy of critique.

"One is too many, two is a pile and three is like 'what the hell is going on here?'" Temple said.

Staff writer Robert Plain can be reached at 482-3456 x 226 or bplain@dailytidings.com.