Videos show BART officer slamming down intoxicated woman

Newly released videos show a BART police officer slamming an intoxicated woman to the ground at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, an incident that she says in a federal lawsuit broke her teeth and bones in her face and left her unconscious in a pool of blood.

The confrontation that injured model and bartender Megan Sheehan, 28, of Pleasant Hill last year was captured on body cameras worn by two Oakland police officers, as well as a jail surveillance camera.

The videos — released by Sheehan’s attorney — show BART police Officer Nolan Pianta throwing Sheehan to the ground of the jail lobby so hard that the impact caused an audible sound. A bystander in the lobby exclaimed, “Ooh.”

The takedown happened after other officers arrested an intoxicated and belligerent Sheehan in Oakland — and after Sheehan purportedly urinated on herself on the ride to jail, tried to wipe the liquid on Pianta’s pants and threw a hair tie at him.

“I think the officer acted out of spite,” Sheehan’s attorney, Lizabeth de Vries, said Tuesday. “I think he was extremely upset about feeling disrespected by the fact that my client threw the hair tie at him. I think he reacted in a way that was completely disproportionate to the facts and circumstances presented to him.”

In court papers, attorneys for BART denied any wrongdoing, saying Sheehan had tried to punch Pianta. They cited Pianta’s police report, in which he wrote that he had used an “arm bar takedown” and “guided her to the ground.” That description is at odds with the video footage.

BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said Tuesday that Pianta’s use of force was properly reported up the chain of command and that an internal investigation was ongoing.

Appeared intoxicated

The incident began about 6:30 p.m. on March 17, 2014, when other officers encountered Sheehan as she sat on a bench inside the Lake Merritt BART Station in Oakland.

According to BART, Sheehan was intoxicated after working a St. Patrick’s Day shift at a bar in San Francisco. She didn’t appear to be capable of caring for herself and was “verbally argumentative” and disrespectful with officers, police said. She apparently had taken the wrong train and believed she was in downtown San Francisco, police said.

Sheehan swore at officers, demanding they give back her identification, and said she was a “terrorist,” at one point reaching into her bag and saying, “There is a needle that will prick you,” BART police said. They said that when Sheehan was taken to the ground to be handcuffed, she hit and kicked an officer.

As Pianta drove Sheehan to jail to book her on suspicion of resisting arrest, battery on a police officer and public intoxication, Sheehan urinated and tried to wipe herself on the officer, police said. While in the booking area, her handcuffs were removed so that she could take off her jewelry.

What videos show

The videos show Sheehan throwing a hair tie at Pianta. According to BART police, she “inexplicably” began looking through her purse and refused Pianta’s instructions to stop doing so. Sheehan then tried to punch Pianta in the face, the officer wrote in his report.

“To protect myself from her attack and to stop her attack on me,” he said, “I used an arm bar takedown and guided her to the ground. Upon guiding her to the ground, she landed on her face and appeared to go unconscious.”

Body cameras worn by Oakland police Officers Joel Hight and Michael Stolzman captured the incident. “Can you call like a Code 3 medical?” Stolzman asked a jail employee. Blood can be seen on the floor near Sheehan.

Sheehan said Pianta hurled her to the ground with such force that she lost consciousness and suffered four broken cheek bones, a split molar and a cracked front tooth.

No criminal charges

Sheehan, who wasn’t criminally charged in the case, spent two days at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley. Her lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, names BART and Pianta as defendants.

To see the videos, go to http://bit.ly/1DU8SaV.

Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @henryklee