FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) - City officials say body-camera video doesn't exist of a protester's disputed arrest in front of the Ferguson Police Department, despite a photo showing an officer standing over the woman with a camera pinned to his shirt, according to a newspaper report.
Heather De Mian, 45, was arrested and charged with assault after police allege she blinded an officer with the light on her phone and assaulted the officer with the phone, cutting his thumb, during the February protest.
De Mian alleges she was punched in the jaw and dumped out of her wheelchair as police arrested several protesters. She didn't see who hit her, but her mother and other witnesses told her it was an officer.
In response to a records request for police video of the arrest, the city issued a statement Thursday saying no video of the protest existed. City officials declined to elaborate, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported (http://bit.ly/1LPlkQ9).
Ferguson outfitted its officers with body cameras after 18-year-old black Michael Brown was fatally shot by a white police officer, though some critics say the cameras have not solved questions of police transparency.
One group, led by resident Nick Kasoff, is pushing to change the city's charter to require that officers keep the cameras turned on with some exceptions and that the department store the video for at least two years.
"The way they are using the technology right now is no better than not having it at all," Kasoff said. "It is basically just a $300 lapel pin."
A Post-Dispatch photo shows an officer standing over De Mian with a red light shining from the body camera pinned to his shirt, indicating the device is turned on.
The newspaper also reported that a protester's video it reviewed doesn't show how De Mian was knocked from her wheelchair, but shows an officer grabbing for the protester's camera and threatening to use a Taser on him for resisting arrest.
Six people were arrested on charges of property damage, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and failing to comply during the protest. De Mian's third-degree assault charge is the most serious.
The police report says a photo was taken of the bruise on the police officer's hand, but the photo isn't included with the report.
Javad Khazaeli, a lawyer representing De Mian and five other people arrested, said he has been asking the city for six months to provide whatever records it has of the arrests. He said the city didn't turn over the police report until last month.
He also said the fact that the city can't produce a recording of his client's arrest defeats the purpose of body cameras.
Ferguson Prosecuting Attorney Stephanie Karr declined to answer questions about De Mian's arrest because the case is still pending.