After a recession-fueled loss of riders, RTA is seeing a surge in bus and rail passengers in the last year.

A Lakewood woman said she was roughed up and wrongfully arrested by an RTA police officer late Sunday.

(Thomas Ondrey, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority on Tuesday issued an apology to a Lakewood woman who said that she was roughed up by an RTA officer without cause.

The incident happened late Sunday at the RTA station on West 117th Street and Madison Avenue.

Jessica Ferrato, 39, said that she was making her way home from the Cleveland International Film Festival in downtown when an RTA officer standing just outside the station doors demanded to see her bus pass. Ferrato showed the officer her pass and continued walking toward her car parked in the lot, but the officer wasn't satisfied, she said.

"He started ordering me to turn around and telling me that he was going to taze me, and that I should turn around and give him my hands," Ferrato wrote on her Facebook wall.

Ferrato said in a phone interview Tuesday that she then pulled out her phone to record the incident, but the officer swatted it out of her hand and took her to the ground.

The officer pushed Ferrato's face into the dirt and, with a knee pressed into Ferrato's back, he wrestled to get her wrists in handcuffs, she said.

Ferrato's pants and underwear were somehow pulled down during the struggle, she said, exposing her until another officer lifted up the garments, rolled her over and put her in a police car.

"When I was on the ground with my face in the dirt, I felt a strange calmness. It may have been adrenaline," Ferrato said Tuesday. "When I was put in the squad car, I realized how absolutely insane it was and I started to cry."

Ferrato said she was charged with disorderly conduct. Officers had threatened her with resisting arrest and obstruction charges, she said.

RTA spokeswoman Linda Krecic issued an apology Tuesday afternoon.

"From what we know now, it appears this incident could have been handled far more appropriately," Krecic said in an email. "We apologize for the way this incident transpired, and this is clearly an unfortunate situation. Importantly, we will be taking the appropriate action internally, and once the investigation is complete, we will be able to provide further details."

Ferrato welcomed the apology -- sent to media and not Ferrato herself -- but said she wanted to see RTA officials speak with action.

"What would it take to give me some peace of mind? I want to know that this will never happen to anyone ever again," Ferrato said. "It feels to me that that officer was not very well-trained in what his duties and boundaries are. ... If people don't feel safe on [the RTA] because of transit cops, that's a shame. That takes away from the city."

Here's Ferrato's initial account of the incident from Facebook: