Lawsuit: San Antonio police caused miscarriage with beating

Destiny Rios' booking photo from Sept. 10, 2014. Destiny Rios' booking photo from Sept. 10, 2014. Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close Lawsuit: San Antonio police caused miscarriage with beating 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

SAN ANTONIO — A woman has filed a lawsuit against three San Antonio Police Department officers, alleging they beat her so severely during a 2012 incident that she suffered a miscarriage.

However, the federal lawsuit — which also names SAPD Police Chief William McManus as a defendant — does not mention that the woman told police at the time of the incident she had used heroin the previous night.

Officer Travis Reich and two other officers – identified only by last names Delgado and Valenzuela in both the plaintiff's original complaint and the department's response – allegedly used excessive force on Destiny Rios while arresting her on July 4, 2012 for an outstanding warrant, according to the lawsuit.

An opposing motion, which can be read here, filed on July 31 on behalf of the officers by San Antonio City Attorney Robert F. Greenblum denies any of those offenses took place. The SAPD did not return a request for comment.

A portion of the 2012 incident, which occurred on Culebra Road near 27th Street, was captured by a cellphone video, which shows three officers restraining Rios, who is screaming on the ground, and striking her about eight times.

Rios' lawsuit, filed July 2 in United States District Court, says the officers used excessive force, searched Rios without probable cause and violated her civil rights by doing so.

The three officers "savagely and brutally beat, punched and kicked Destiny Rios in her head, face and body as a whole with a boot planted in the middle of her shoulder blades forcing her body into the asphalt surface" while Rios screamed she was pregnant, according to the woman's lawsuit, which can be read here.

The beating caused "intense bleeding from her uterus and discharge of tissue resulting in a miscarriage," the lawsuit says.

A police report from the incident, which can be read here, says officers struck her four or five times during the arrest and that officers stopped Rios under suspicion of prostitution and heroin possession.

"Whether it was four or five, or whether it was eight, is really irrelevant," McManus told News 4 San Antonio in 2012 after the incident. "If the officer felt that he needed to strike her eight times to get her to comply to get handcuffs on, then that's how many times he struck her."

McManus told the TV station that at the time of the arrest, there was no evidence supporting Rios' claim that she was pregnant or suffered a miscarriage. The police report of the incident says Rios informed a medic after being taken into custody that she was three months pregnant.

Rios said she was walking to her grandmother's house on Culebra Road when Reich, one of the officers, stopped her.

The police report says officers in the area were on alert for prostitutes selling heroin. Reich observed marks on Rios' left and right arms and asked her about them, to which she replied that she used heroin the previous day, according to the police report.

Reich found nothing after a voluntary search of Rios' purse and told her she was free to leave, the police report says. Reich subsequently ran a background check in his patrol car and discovered Rios had an outstanding warrant for prostitution and arrested her, according to the police report.

Rios began to back away from Reich, at which point the officer instructed her to turn around and place her hands behind her back, the report says. The officer reached for Rios' arm, but she pulled it away and he then grabbed Rios with both hands and pushed her onto the trunk of his patrol car, the report says.

"I then threw (Rios) to the ground in an effort to gain control of her," Reich said in the police report.

Rios screamed, alerting officers Delgado and Valenzuela, who were parked nearby. Rios refused to give officers her hands to be placed in handcuffs, according to the report, and Delgado struck her right shoulder blade four to five times.

After that, she complied, was placed in handcuffs and not struck again afterward, the report says, adding that Rios had "red marks to her right shoulder blade and a scrape to her right cheek" and an EMS recommended further medical treatment.

The lawsuit offers a different perspective, alleging that Reich grabbed and twisted her arms, handcuffed both hands behind her back and violently threw Rios' face to the ground when she asked why she was being arrested. As Reich's hands gripped her back and his knees were planted between her shoulders, he told Rios she was resisting arrest, according to the suit.

The officers took Rios into custody, but the charges of resisting arrest and prostitution were dropped in May 2013 when Rios was sentenced for burglary of habitation.

The police department's opposing motion says the officers "did not violate plaintiff's constitutional rights nor commit any wrongful act."

Rios – who stands just over five feet and weighed about 126 pounds at the time of the incident – suffered "emotional and physical injuries to her back and body as a whole," the lawsuit contends, including "multiple lacerations, abrasions and bruising on her face, back, chest, arms, shoulders, headaches and loss of consciousness, severe abdominal cramping and pain" in addition to "mental anguish and emotional distress."

The department's motion says Rios repeatedly concealed her hands under her body, "leading the officers to believe she may have a weapon or be attempting to hide evidence."

The suit was first reported by the San Antonio Current.

Rios was arrested again last month on charges of prostitution. Bexar County records show she is awaiting a docket appearance.

News researcher Julie Domel contributed to this report.

jfechter@express-news.net

Twitter: @JFreports