A seven months pregnant woman is filing a $1-million civil lawsuit against the city claiming police falsely arrested her and kept her in jail for three days, before finally realizing she was arrested for no reason. The NYPD and Stephanie Badillo, 19, have differing versions of how long Badillo was behind bars, but this much is certain: she was in the wrong place at the wrong time when she went to visit her boyfriend in Tremont on the evening of November 5th.
When Badillo entered the lobby of her boyfriend's apartment building around 11:30 that night, she was inadvertently walking into a drug bust. She was arrested along with eight others, including their boyfriend, and the NYPD tells the Post that "heroin was present." Badillo's lawyer claims his client was taken to the 48th Precinct station house and did not get released from Central Booking until 3:45 a.m. Monday, a total of more than 50 hours in the clink. Her boyfriend was released a couple of hours later, and the Bronx DA will only say that there was "insufficient evidence" to prosecute.
Badillo tells ABC 7 she was strip-searched: "They made me pull my pants down and my shirt up...and squat." And during her time in jail, she says she didn't eat or sleep, telling the Post, "I was afraid for the life of my baby. I couldn't do anything." Her lawyer adds, "To have her sit in a jail for three days without a lawyer or being able to see a judge rings with injustice." But the NYPD claims she was in custody from just before midnight on the 5th until just after midnight on the 7th. Sheesh, that's only 25 hours, what's everybody crying about?
