Female War Veteran Suffers Torture

Female war vet suffers centuries-old method of torture 
by Sultan Mohammad

More than two years ago, like many other non-publicized barbarities throughout the country, a female Gulf war veteran visiting relatives in the small town of Unadilla, Georgia was questionably arrested and subsequently ended up strapped to a 13th century-styled “restraining chair” in excess of 12 continuous hours, while soaking in her own sweat and urine.

While documented and undocumented stories of police brutality and injustice are as common in America as tap water, it is most unusual that her key witness in two federal suits against the city and its county seat, Dooly, respectively, could be a former rank police officer who is now the Police Chief of “old boy” city.

Ms. Angeletha Slaughter, who is also a victim of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the most common disaster of the Gulf War, was riding in a recently purchased vehicle driven by her husband, Kirk, June 2, 2004 when a White police officer, David Smith, stopped them on Road 30 in Unadilla. According to Ms. Slaughter, Officer David Smith based his actions on the appearance of phony temporary Illinois license plates…

Ms. Slaughter said that in Unadilla, temporary plates can actually be handwritten, while in Illinois, temporary plates are state issued and very official looking, especially when compared to those in Unadilla.

Ms. Slaughter said that her husband, a registered sex offender, was told by the officer that a warrant was out for his arrest because he had not registered for the month. Nevertheless, she said, he usually registers at the end of each month and had never missed. Her husband was handcuffed and put in the squad car.

She then complained that Officer David Smith started searching her car and when she told him he did not have permission to search the car, the officer told her to sit on the hood of his patrol car. At about the same time, a Black police sergeant, Leonard Smith, arrived as backup to the officer already at the scene.

After Officer David Smith continued his search despite a second protest by Ms. Slaughter, he found a small twig of some kind in the car and arrested her—charging her with possession of marijuana under an ounce, lying to a police officer and obstruction.

They left the scene of the arrest and proceeded to the Slaughters’ home while the couple remained handcuffed in the squad car. After encountering their 14-year-old daughter at the door, Officer David Smith entered the house and began an illegal search of the home.

Sgt. Leonard Smith arrived at the scene, unshackled her cuffs and allowed she and her husband to stretch, momentarily, but were put back into the squad car upon the arresting officer’s return from the illegal house search, which turned up nothing.

Sgt. Leonard Smith made it clear to the Slaughters that he is not a party to this action, and Ms. Slaughter said Sgt. Smith did not participate in the activity, but was monitoring it. In talking with the former sergeant, who is now a police chief, Leonard Smith said that because of his superiors, he really had no control over Officer David Smith.

The Slaughters were then taken to the Dooly County Jail and placed in separate cells. It is here that the worst part of this fiasco takes place and the beginning of a torture chamber for the 49-year-old war veteran.

At approximately 8 a.m. the following morning, she was taken to another area of the jail to see a nurse. Nurse Atkins, according to Ms. Slaughter, told her to sit down. Due to personal issues, Ms. Slaughter responded that she was soaked and wet from perspiration and that it was too uncomfortable to sit down. At this point, an unidentified White officer already in the room, threatened to slam her down if she doesn’t sit down. Again, she complains and she said the White officer then lifted her five-foot, 135-pound frame into the air and slammed her to the table.

The nurse then asks her about the kind of ‘meds’ (medicines) she was taking and she told her she did not know. She said Nurse Watkins called her a “smart a–,” and told the officer who brought her in to put her in “the hole” for five days. She is taken to another cell, but first demands to make a phone call, which she has not yet been granted since her arrest. The unidentified officer told her to wait.

The officer returns with a restraining chair, coaxed her to come out of the cell and commanded her to sit in the chair while her legs, arms and shoulders were then buckled to it.

This treatment, added Ms. Slaughter, was made more demoralizing when she was then rolled out of the jail and into the squad car garage where there was a cage about the size of a cell. She was left there for at least the next 12 hours restrained, tethered and wet from her own urine. Although she was freed that following night, she was still held in their custody and was not released until the next morning.

She and her husband were freed after posting some $3,800 in bail which is the subject of another complaint. Following a plea bargain in November 2005 in which he received probation, Mr. Slaughter later received $1,000 of the bail money back in November 2006, but the remaining $2,800, which was initially applied to Ms. Slaughter’s bail, was promised this past December.

When she returned accompanied by Leonard Smith, she was told that Unadilla City Attorney Toni Sawyer passed instructions that she could not get her bail, although her case had never been called.

When Ms. Sawyer was called and questioned about the incident, she said she knew nothing about the case although she was the city attorney. She said further that she did not tell anyone not to give Ms. Slaughter the refund, because even though she was the city attorney of the city which was charged in a federal suit, she knew “absolutely nothing” about the case.

If Ms. Slaughter had not filed federal cases against the city of Unadilla for false arrest and violation of her civil rights against the county of Dooly for the humiliating and life endangering assault with the “restraining chair,” the statute of limitations would have run out in the Unadilla case which was never tried or even arraigned.

Ms. Slaughter filed the federal cases on her own in the United States District Court (Middle/District of Georgia), which totals more than 20 claims for relief from the Unadilla City and Dooly County.

Consequently, as a result of the investigation into this case, an all -out assault case has been launched against the Police Chief, which is another story in and of itself.

Chief Smith has now been charged with an impropriety involving his employment, but was not given privilege before the grand jury which consists of possible witnesses who could easily exonerate him.

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