Attorney: Dog-busting cops caused woman's miscarriage

[MrScorpio]

By Ty Tagami
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A pregnant woman suffered a miscarriage due to rough treatment by Clayton County authorities who were enforcing a local dog ordinance, the woman's attorney said Tuesday.

More than two dozen county cops and sheriff's deputies swarmed Shennielle Youhoing-Nanan's home in early March and waved guns in her face, according to the attorney, Thomas F. Jones of Atlanta. One officer pushed his knee into Youhoing-Nanan's back as she lay on the floor, and she lost her two-month-old fetus because of it, Jones said in a written statement.

Jones said he filed a complaint against both the Clayton Sheriff's Office and Police Department.

Clayton police spokesman Officer Otis Willis confirmed Tuesday that the police Internal Affairs unit received the complaint, and he said the department would have no comment.

A sheriff's spokesperson did not return a call for comment.

Police said at the time of her March 3 arrest that Youhoing-Nanan, 43, had violated a Clayton ordinance prohibiting anyone from keeping more than five dogs over four months of age. Police also said Clayton Animal Control officers had been trying to contact her for a year and that they obtained a warrant for her a day before the arrest.

Youhoing-Nanan had a dozen dogs in unsanitary conditions in her backyard, authorities said. She received 13 citations and was charged with obstruction “due to her intentional avoidance of the Clayton County Animal Control Officers,” police said at the time.

But Jones, her attorney, said only four of the dogs were adults and the rest were puppies, and that Animal Control later confirmed that she was not violating the ordinance when she was arrested.

Jones said Youhoing-Nanan was rousted from her home in bedclothes and paraded into the street partially naked. He said she was taken to a hospital after emergency medical personnel determined she needed care. He also said she was taken to jail after her hospital discharge and was forced to wear her blood-caked clothes in court.

"Mrs. Youhoing-Nanan was humiliated beyond belief in front of her family and neighbors, dragged through the streets naked, barefoot, and pregnant, and her child was deprived of life simply to enforce an unjust charge," Jones said in a written statement Tuesday.

http://www.ajc.com/news/clayton/attorney-dog-busting-cops-397172.html

[stray cat]

1. 2 month old fetus -how do you classify that -

A child only if its wanted otherwise a lump of cells?

[Regret My New Name]

2. uhh oh...

[Regret My New Name]

3. Why such a strong show of force for non-violent offenses?

Can't people step analyze each situation and only apply the amount of force needed? No common sense.

[cynatnite]

4. I hope she sues the crap out of these people. n/t

[LiberalFighter]

5. Another abuse of powers.

[virgogal]

6. I doubt very much that this caused the miscarriage.

[Demeter]

7. It Sure As Hell Didn't Improve Her Health

Good thing you aren't a lawyer or a doctor, you would lose that bet.

[tkmorris]

8. Do you really?

That's interesting.

[cynatnite]

9. How do you figure?

That's not to mention the dispicable treatment she received on top of it. Can you imagine being forced to wear the blood of your miscarriage in a courtroom?

This is fucking insane.

[virgogal]

10. I had one miscarriage and was always treated quite well. I fell down an entire

flight of stairs,holding a one year old and was 7 months pregnant, No miscarriage,no injuries.

Babies are well protected in the womb.

[cynatnite]

11. Obviously, this woman was treated horrific. Every one should be outraged. n/t

[Fleshdancer]

12. Trauma to the abdomen is indeed a cause for miscarriage

I'm really glad it didn't happen to you, but it does happen.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

13. I missed the part where they mentioned trauma to her abdomen.

It is a cause of miscarriage and would likely leave physical evidence to back it up.

[Fleshdancer]

14. I think it's implied with this sentence:

"One officer pushed his knee into Youhoing-Nanan's back as she lay on the floor"

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

15. If it was hard enough to cause a miscarriage there would be significant evidence.

Which there may be plenty of?

[Fleshdancer]

16. I have no idea

I've never been in this situation and have no idea what, if any, evidence there should be aside from the actual miscarriage.

[kdmorris]

19. I fell down a flight of stairs when I was 11 weeks pregnant

and started bleeding the next day. After 4 days of bleeding and cramping, I lost my baby.

You cannot determine that everything happens just like it happened to you. Just because you didn't lose your baby doesn't mean that others haven't lost their babies in the exact same circumstances.

[REP]

17. 8 weeks gravida ... Her age was more likely the cause, not the officers' despicable treatment

Nothing excuses the excess of the police in this case or how she was treated, but her age is the likely cause of the spontaneous abortion at 8 weeks.

[uppityperson]

18. Indeed. 8 wk miscarriages are very common. Doesn't excuse cops behavior, but doubt it was cause

of the miscarriage. And yes, I am female, have had a miscarriage, and am a health care provider who has dealt with such things.

If it were THAT easy to cause a miscarriage, there would be a lot of happy women and unhappy women, depending on whether or not they wanted to be pregnant.

[Ilsa]

21. ITA. Miscarriages by 8 weeks are common enough, plus she is 43,

Providing a statistical likelihood that the fetus was congenitally unviable.

I can't help but wonder if the unsanitary conditions could have played a part also, considering the viruses, bacteria present, etc.

Still, the behavior of the police was way over the top and inexcusable.

[Tsiyu]

20. Clayton County Thug Cops are well known

their favorite thing to do is arrest people for bogus charges, slap an obstruction charge on them if they do so much as say, "but I never did such a thing."

they know the original charges won't stick, but the corrupt judges will hang on to the obstruction charge so you still have to pay them and get a record to boot.

They did it to me, my sister, many folks I know. I worked in Emergency Medicine at Clayton General (the name at the time), and I warned the one cop that his evil would come back to haunt him. Any time he had to come in the ER after that, he wouldn't even look me in the eyes because he knew he had violated my rights BLATANTLY.

Corruption RULES Southern law enforcement, and Clayton County is the POSTER CHILD for their cause. Griffin, Georgia probably comes a close second.

If we ever did a close examination of Southern Law enforcement America would be shocked.