Smithfield woman alleges assault by police
A Smithfield woman sued several state police troopers, claiming she was pepper-sprayed by police while shackled earlier this year.
Derena Marie Madison, 40, alleged in the Tuesday filing in federal court that she was handcuffed and shackled to a bench at the state police station in Uniontown when one trooper used pepper spray on her on Feb. 3.
Filed by attorneys Mark J. Gesk and Joel Sansone, the suit alleged that several others carried her outside the station, where she was doused with water twice and then passed out in the snow. When she came to, Madison alleged that she “felt and smelled urine on her head, face, neck and about her person.”
Madison was initially taken into the custody when she was the passenger in a vehicle driven by another woman who had been arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.
When police said they were going to tow the vehicle, Madison got out of the car, according to the suit, and was arrested and eventually cited for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct.
She was convicted of both following a June summary trial, but contended in the filing that she was not combative with police when she was at the station.
The suit named Troopers Chad Weaver and Michael Zampagona, a trooper only identified as “Cooley” and two troopers only identified as John Doe and Richard Roe.