A homeless woman in Gresham alleges being Tasered by two Gresham police officers in retaliation for asking for their business cards last April.
LAW ENFORCEMENT SPOT THE DIFFERENCE: An (extremely) artistic impression of possible responses to the question, “May I have your business card?”

Mary MacQuire is suing the City of Gresham and Officers Jeff Durbin and Ted Van Beek, who were rousting homeless people from a homeless camp in Gresham known as “the Swamp” on the morning of April 7, 2006. Durbin and Van Beek approached a group of tents and began telling the people that they had to leave because they were illegally camped. 23-year-old MacQuire was retrieving some of her belongings from a tent, when she alleges seeing Durbin and Van Beek kicking her ex-boyfriend, Greg Schultz. The suit reads:

MacQuire approached Durbin and Van Beek slowly and told them they should not treat Shultz in this manner and asked for their cards. Durbin grabbed MacQuire’s arm. When she tried to pull away, Durbin punched her several times in the stomach. At Van Beek’s command, Durbin grabbed MacQuire by the hair and threw her to the ground while holding her head down. Durbin pinned her to the ground with his knee in her lower back. While she was pinned below him, Durbin electrically shocked MacQuire several times with his Taser gun.

MacQuire alleges being shocked six or seven times by Durbin on her right, upper, back thigh and hamstring while she was pinned beneath him with her face on the ground. She alleges Durbin told her “I could kill you” while she was being Tasered by him.

After being taken into custody, MacQuire alleges being denied appropriate medical attention for her injuries despite asking for help. Durbin cited her for disorderly conduct, offensive physical conduct, resisting arrest and unlawful camping—Macquire was subsequently found not guilty on all those charges.

Macquire is alleging the officers broke her constitutional right not to be subject to unreasonable seizure and unreasonable detention, under the fourth amendment. The case continues and is scheduled to go to jury trial in Federal Court on April 29th 2008.

A call to Gresham Police Department’s Public Information Officer for comment was yet to be returned at the time of posting.