Talk about your Monday from hell. Not only did Bridgett Nickerson Boyd's car break down on her way to work, but when she pulled over to the side of the freeway, a sheriff's deputy named Mark Goad pulled behind her, wrote her a ticket for driving on the shoulder, decided to arrest her, followed her to the hospital when her suddenly racing heart prompted a call to paramedics, then took her into custody again after she was treated by doctors and finally drove her to jail. To make matters worse, Boyd claims in a lawsuit that the handcuffs were put on her wrists painfully tight and that she was forced to listen to conservative broadcaster Rush Limbaugh "make derogatory comments about black people" all the way to the jail. Boyd is African-American.
Because of the incident, which occurred on Oct. 4, 2010, Boyd filed a federal lawsuit Monday against Goad and Harris County alleging defamation, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
"Deputy Goad was aware that Boyd had not committed a crime and her arrest was without probable cause," according to the lawsuit filed in Houston.
The magistrate who saw her while jailed apparently agreed and dismissed all charges.
A spokesman for Sheriff Adrian Garcia declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Boyd's attorney, Troy Pradia, said she thought the deputy had pulled up behind her car to help her. She had moved to the shoulder along Beltway 8 near Texas 288 after her engine started smoking.
Pradia added that he and Boyd had hoped the matter would be settled by the sheriff's department after she filed a complaint.
