Brickbat: Reckless Parking
The Scottsdale, Arizona, city council unanimously agreed to pay $200,000 to settle a wrongful arrest lawsuit. Yessenia Garcia called police to report her car had been vandalized while she was in a bar. But officers instead began to treat her as a suspect in a hit-and-run that had been reported nearby about a half hour earlier. When she asked for an attorney, bodycam video showed an officer telling her she was not entitled to one because she was under investigation. They arrested her for possession of drug paraphernalia, two counts of driving under the influence and failure to stop at the scene of an accident causing injury or death. Those charges were dropped shortly afterwards. Garcia's attorney said that security video from the bar's parking lot showed her car was parked at the time of the hit-and-run.
