Sandy MaloneShelby Township, MI – The police chief released video from inside a Shelby Township police vehicle that proved a protester who claimed officers had stripped-searched her on Saturday was lying (video below).
The woman was arrested after a skirmish between Black Lives Matter protesters and police on Oct. 24 at 23 Mile and Van Dyke, WJBK reported.
The anti-police demonstration, organized by a group called Detroit Will Breathe, blocked roads and refused repeated police commands to disperse.
Police made 10 arrests during the melee but ended up releasing five of the protesters at the scene, the Detroit Free Press reported.
One of the women who was arrested – 26-year-old Jessica Nadeau – claimed afterwards that police had strip-searched her when she was taken into custody at the protest and left her in nothing but her underwear, WJBK reported.
Activists immediately responded with outrage on social media and called for justice for the protester who claimed to have been stripped down in public.
“F–k the police. But f–k the racist Shelby Township Michigan Police specifically. Beat up marchers, strip search a female protestor, and then offer to release the video to the media. Despicable,” @MarieAtLaw tweeted on Monday.
Sammie Lewis, one of the protest organizers, told WJBK that police had broken the law.
“They ended up stripping a protester down, which is illegal to do in front of other people,” Lewis complained.
But it didn’t take long for Shelby Township to release video from the patrol vehicle that refuted Nadeau’s allegations and proved she was lying.
The video of the backseat of the patrol SUV showed that Nadeau was fully clothed in handcuffs when she slipped out of her plastic restraints and began removing her clothing.
Nadeau panted and complained “I’m dying” as she struggled to get out of her shirt and pants while seated in the back of the police vehicle, the video showed.
The video showed she pulled her belt out of her pants and then removed her shoes one at a time, undressing until all that remained were her bra and panties.
“There, now you don’t need to search me, I’ll make it easier on ya,” Nadeau told the officer when he got into the vehicle.
At that point, the video showed Nadeau lifted up her bra and smashed her bare breasts against the window of the patrol car to give everyone outside a full view.
She banged on the window and officers opened up the back door of the police car a moment later, the video showed.
“Now it’s easier to search me,” Nadeau told them in the video. “Now you can search all of it.”
Shelby Township Police Deputy Chief Mark Coil presented the video to the public and said it needed no narration, the Detroit Free Press reported.
“The video speaks for itself. The video is completely transparent,” Chief Coil said. “This is the detriment of social media postings, often you have inaccuracies.”
“This is the problem with social media news, I would like to leave real news to real newscasters,” he added.
Chief Coil cautioned people against rushing to judgment, WJBK reported.
“Most people don’t understand the totality of the circumstance, they don’t have the totality of the facts,” he explained. “And they make their own opinion. And when you make your own opinion on false information or improper information, you make bad judgments.”
Here is some of the information I’ve gathered. I spoke with @ShelbyTwp911 to try to gather more context and I was referred to the statement you see in the third picture. pic.twitter.com/zsBhxwYrW5
— Zach Clark (@ZachEClark) October 25, 2020
Jessica Nadeau, escaped her flex cuffs in the rear of a patrol car and stripped her clothes off. Social media said Nadeua was forcibly removed from the patrol car and tore her clothes off while attempting a non-consensual strip search. Shelby Township police released a police cam
— NoneYoBusinessYo (@NoneYoBusinessU) October 27, 2020
Nadeau was booked into the county jail in Mount Clemens and charged with assaulting, resisting, and obstructing a police officer, felonies that carry up to a two-year sentence prison sentence, the Detroit Free Press reported.
She was also charged with misdemeanor disturbing the peace, which carries up to a 90-day jail sentence.
Nadeau was later released on a $5,000 bond, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Watch the incident unfold in the video below. WARNING – Graphic Content and Obscene Language:
Holly Matkin
