A pregnant mother of three has sued the city, saying she was wrongly busted, searched in front of neighbors, handcuffed, hauled off to a Bronx station house and strip-searched before being let go 10 hours later.
Letecia Spriggs, 31, says her nightmare began at around 4 p.m. March 2 when she was returning from buying a ginger ale from the grocery store. She says she wasn’t feeling well, having just gotten out of the hospital for treatment of dehydration while three months pregnant.
“They grabbed me for no reason,” said Spriggs.
Spriggs, who has no criminal record, recalls three uniformed cops in an unmarked car setting upon her, apparently looking for drug suspects. She says they told her she had been trespassing at a nearby building.
“They accused me of buying drugs, and I didn’t have anything but a soda,” Spriggs said.
Spriggs says the cops ripped off her jacket and shoes in public.
Once at the station house, Spriggs says she was strip-searched – something the NYPD denies.
Spriggs said she was released at 2 a.m., when her fingerprints cleared the computer database.
A charge of criminal mischief was later dropped, her lawyer, Steven Siegel, said. A trip to the court clerk’s office revealed prosecutors had concluded the cops had messed up, he said.
City officials declined to comment.