Woman thrown to ground by police speaks out

The young woman planning to sue the Colorado Springs Police Department for excessive force sat down with KRDO NEWSCHANNEL 13 Friday to describe what happened.

She said the November 2013 incident has changed her.

“How I feel about society, cops, I don’t know,” Alexis Acker said.

Surveillance video from Memorial Hospital shows Acker, then 18, in handcuffs and Officer Tyler Walker. It shows Walker pushing her onto a chair, Acker kicking him, then Walker shoving her onto the ground.

“I yelled at him, and I said, ‘You didn’t have to knock out my tooth,'” she said. “And I was just yelling back and forth, and he said, ‘This is what happens when you don’t listen to cops.'”

According to police reports, Walker and other officers had responded to a disturbance earlier that night. They said Acker was intoxicated and uncooperative with police; that she yelled obscenities at them and kicked at two officers.

Acker said she does have regrets from that night.

“I regret just drinking, having friends over, because the cops wouldn’t have got called,” she said. “I regret my rude words, of course. I regret kicking at the officers.”

Still, she said she didn’t deserve what happened.

“Compared to my size, there’s a lot of things he could’ve done, she said. “You don’t have to slam my face into the ground. I was handcuffed as well.”

Acker was charged with two counts of second degree assault, but she took a plea deal and the charges were dropped. She pleaded guilty to felony menacing and obstruction of a peace officer.

A CSPD spokesperson said they couldn’t comment, because the video is part of a civil litigation and an internal investigation.