Pair sue BART over police scuffle, say excessive force led to miscarriage

OAKLAND » An Oakland man and a San Francisco woman involved in a 2016 scuffle with BART police have filed separate lawsuits against the transit agency, claiming officers used excessive force and that the incident led to the woman’s miscarriage.

Michael D. Smith and his thenpregnant girlfriend Andrea Appleton were riding BART on July 29, 2016, when they got into a confrontation with BART police officers at the Embarcadero station in San Francisco, which was recorded by many bystanders and shared thousands of times on social media. The officers had been looking for an armed man who threatened to rob a passenger.

Officers believed Smith matched the description of the suspect and asked him to get on the ground, but he reportedly “bit, kicked, and spat on officers while resisting arrest,” said BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost in 2016 following the incident. Appleton was also pinned to the ground and handcuffed, although she was never arrested, according to her lawsuit.

One day after the incident, Appleton suffered complications and had a miscarriage, her lawsuit states.

Appleton said she had her stomach pressed to the ground, and repeatedly told officers she was pregnant, but they nonetheless handcuffed her and one officer put his knee into her back.

No weapons were found on Smith, and he was acquitted of misdemeanor charges of battery against a peace officer in the criminal case last year. Other charges against him were eventually dropped.

Police officer’s body camera footage of the incident was made public. Smith is seen wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt and at one point an officer saying “he might have a gun,” and Appleton beside him, laying flat on the ground.

Appleton said she suffered and will continue to suffer damages including pain, fear, anxiety, and other medical issues due to the incident.

In his civil lawsuit, filed in federal court Sept. 1, Smith said that just after the couple exited the BART train, officers immediately pointed guns and yelled at them to get on the ground. Although Smith asked what was happening, officers allegedly smashed his face onto the platform ground, the lawsuit states.

“At no time did the officers question Smith about a crime of which he was suspected. At no time did they address him as a human being who might not have done anything wrong, which he had not,” wrote his attorney Glenn Katon in the lawsuit.

Smith claims he was then beaten by the officers, including being punched in the face, and they used their knees and body weight to crush his chest into the platform, which made it difficult for him to breathe.

Besides BART, the lawsuit also names the four officers involved in the incident: Bryan Trabanino, Wilson Velasquez- Ochoa, Jimmy Chung, and Antwinette Turner.

Smith’s lawsuit called the defendants actions “outrageous” and claims Smith suffered severe emotional distress.

Although the two lawsuits do not ask for a specific amount in damages, they do ask for jury trials.

Trost, the BART spokeswoman said Thursday that the agency has not yet been served with the lawsuits.