Holly MatkinWildwood, NJ – A belligerent woman seen spitting and fighting with Wildwood police in a viral video two years ago will receive a $325,000 payday from the city’s insurance.
Emily Weinman was originally indicted on two counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer, obstruction, resisting arrest, and throwing bodily fluids for fighting two Wildwood police officers on Memorial Day weekend in 2018.
But in early 2019, she was allowed to plead guilty to a single count of disorderly conduct, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported at the time.
In exchange for her guilty plea, the remaining charges against her were dropped.
Her plea agreement also stipulated that the testimony from Weinman’s guilty plea hearing could not be used in any lawsuit she filed against the officers involved in her arrest.
Although Weinman admitted that her actions were illegal, she downplayed the vulgar tirade seen on the viral video when she addressed the judge at her sentencing hearing.
“When the officers approached me on the beach, I got upset, and I said a few curse words,” Weinman told Superior Court Judge Bernard DeLury, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
DeLury ultimately sentenced Weinman to one year of probation, and banned her from visiting Wildwood beach until her sentence is complete.
“I’m just happy that it’s over and everybody can move on,” she told the judge.
Weinman was already on probation in Pennsylvania for an unrelated offense when she assaulted the officers.
The officers involved in the entitled woman’s arrest were cleared of wrongdoing by Cape May County prosecutor Jeffrey Sutherland on June 5, 2018, NJ.com reported at the time.
Despite her guilty plea and the fact that the officers were cleared, Weinman filed a federal lawsuit against the city, claiming that she was “brutally and senselessly assaulted” by the two seasonal officers, according to NJ.com.
She also alleged the officers fabricated evidence and used excessive force against her.
One of her attorneys previously claimed the confrontation left Weinman with injuries, depression, and made her a “prisoner in her home,” NJ.com reported.
Weinman said that life has been difficult since she was arrested for assaulting the officers.
“I’m not going to sit here and say everything’s been fine,” Weinman told The Philadelphia Inquirer after her sentencing hearing.
“It really hasn’t been. It’s kind of ruined my reputation. It’s put me down a lot,” she complained. “I go to a lot of places and I get stared at. But I just want people to know that whatever happened that day on the beach on the video, that doesn’t define the kind of person I am.”
“It’s not going to keep me away from Wildwood,” Weinman assured reporters, causing her attorney to interrupt and note that she would follow the judge’s order by staying away from Wildwood until her probation period is over.
“No contact with Wildwood. She has to stay out of Wildwood,” the lawyer reiterated.
“I’ll find something to do,” she laughed. “I’ll find a different beach.”
The insurance for city of Wildwood offered to pay Weinman $325,000 to settle the suit earlier this month, and she accepted, according to NJ.com.
Former Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano, who was mayor at the time of Weinman’s arrest, called the settlement a “travesty and a miscarriage of justice,” NJ.com reported.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Troiano, who has been very vocal in his support of the two officers.
“Here’s a woman who’s carrying on on the beach, assaulted the police. For her conduct, she gets $325,000,” the former mayor told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “The cops are doing their job. They didn’t escalate it. She’s down there with alcohol. She pleads guilty, yet she gets rewarded $325,000. Treat the cops like they’re trash, break the law, if you want a payday.”
The incident occurred at approximately 4 p.m. on May 26, 2018, when Wildwood police encountered Weinman, then 20 years old, at the beach with her boyfriend and 18-month-old daughter.
The officers noted that Weinman and her boyfriend were in possession of alcohol, and asked them how old they were.
In a since-deleted Facebook post, Weinman explained that although she was underage, 90 percent of people who drink alcohol on the beach are underage “without a doubt.”
When the officers asked for their ages, she admitted they were underage, bodycam footage showed.
She claimed that the alcohol belonged to her aunt, so the officer asked her to contact her to have her come to their location.
Weinman grabbed her cell phone, then wandered away from the officers.
“Go grab her real quick,” one officer told his partner. “We’re gonna have them pour that all out.”
In her post, Weinman claimed that the officer was going to let her off with a warning, but that he changed his mind after she told him he needed to find “something better to do” than to address underage drinking on the beach.
Weinman argued that “you’re allowed to carry alcohol,” even when underage, and claimed she had done nothing wrong, because she hadn’t consumed any yet, the video showed.
The officer explained that possession of alcohol was still a violation, despite Weinman’s beliefs to the contrary.
When the officers asked Weinman and her boyfriend for their identifying information, she became argumentative and refused to cooperate.
Weinman said that she “did not do anything wrong,” so she refused to give the officer her name because “anything could’ve been written down on that paper,” according to her Facebook post.
“You’ll lock me up for obstruction with my f–king 18-month-old daughter over there?” she asked an officer at one point in the video.
Despite being given multiple additional opportunities to provide officers with her name, Weinman continued to argue and kicked one of the officers before she began to leave the area, according to police.
“Okay, that’s it. I’m done with you,” the officer said, grabbing a pair of handcuffs from his partner. “Come here.”
“Don’t you f–king touch me!” Weinman turned around and yelled, before she resumed her march away from the pursuing officer.
“You’re about to get dropped,” he cautioned her.
“Yo! Don’t f–king cuff me!” Weinman yelled.
According to Wildwood Police Chief Robert Regalbuto, Weinman “forcibly struck” the officer in the torso, which caused his camera to turn off, NJ.com reported.
You can see the camera going off at the moment of impact.
That’s when Weinman said she backed up and “tripped and fell.” After tripping and falling, she claimed the officer somehow tackled her to the ground and “smashed my head in the sand.”
“At that point I blacked out and fought any way possible trying to get up and push him off me,” Weinman posted.
The fight between the officer and Weinman was underway when the officer managed to reactivate his bodycam.
As they tumbled onto the sand, Weinman hurled expletives at the officer, and continued to resist arrest, the video showed.
“They’re choking me!” she began to scream, while beachgoers looked on. “You f–king d–k head! Get the f–k off me, yo!”
The officer delivered several strikes to subdue the combative woman, who began wailing and screaming for her boyfriend.
“You’re not allowed to beat me like that!” she complained in the video. “I’m a woman!”
“Get off me! My daughter is right there seeing this!” Weinman continued, while the officers secured her in handcuffs.
Weinman turned her head, and spit at one of the officers during the scuffle before she was led away to a waiting patrol vehicle.
“I can say if I took even a sip, then I would’ve gave them my information and called it a day; I’m underage, so I know better” Weinman wrote in her Facebook post. “But this whole situation was handled wrongly and blew out of proportion all because these pigs didn’t do their jobs the way they were TRAINED to do so.”
