By Maria Perez
Staff Writer
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The attorney for the 20-year-old woman who was punched several times by police officers on a New Jersey beach said what the officers did was an "overreaction."
During an interview with WPVI, defense attorney Stephen Dicht said his client, Emily Weinman, was given a breathalyzer test twice and complied with authorities, but the police were still excessive.
"What they did to her was just an overreaction," Dicht told WPVI on Thursday. "They asked her to give a breathalyzer; she did it not once, but twice. She was very cooperative, but for whatever reason, the police didn't stop there."
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Weinman is suffering from neck, back and head pain in addition to depression after police placed her under arrest on Saturday while they were searching the iconic beach for underage drinking during Memorial Day weekend. The video of the arrest went viral after footage showed the officers punching Weinman as she struggled.
"I tripped and fell and the cop tackled me to the ground and smashed my head into the sand. At that point I blacked out and fought any way possible trying to get up and push him off me. That's when he head locked me by his arm around my neck, punched on me in my head and then he head locked me again but this time choking me, I was gasping for [air]," Weinman wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post.
Weinman, a Philadelphia resident, was charged with two counts of aggravated assault on a police officer, aggravated assault by spitting bodily fluids at/on a police officer, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, obstruction and being a minor in possession of alcohol.
The Wildwood Police Department released body camera footage of the incident on Thursday. According to the newly released video, Weinman shoved and spit at a police officer.
"She didn't have to be confrontational, she didn't have to strike the officer," Police Chief Robert Regalbuto told WPVI in a phone interview. "The officers were just telling her they were going to place her under arrest and he's reaching for her and she lunges toward the officer and hits him in the chest."
In the newly released video, Weinman had also refused to give the officers her name. Dicht told WPVI that she didn't have to tell the officers her name.
"They didn't find that she had done anything wrong. So there really wasn't any reason for them to have her name. If they were going to cite her, they should have said 'We're issuing you a citation for whatever, this is why they need your name.' But they never said that," Dicht said.
On Saturday, the Wildwood Police Department issued a statement and said they were still investigating the matter.
"This City of Wildwood Police Department has received reports of a video on various social media sources, regarding an incident that occurred on the Wildwood beach yesterday afternoon, with our officers. An Internal Affairs Investigation was immediately initiated into this matter and the involved officers have been reassigned to administrative duty pending the outcome of a full and thorough investigation," the department wrote on Facebook.
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