Area police departments yesterday found themselves defending some arrest practices that have resulted in allegations of abuse.

In dramatic testimony at a news conference called by the state branch of the NAACP, victims of alleged police violence told how they were Tasered, thrown to the ground or charged with crimes that infringed on basic rights.

"It was a feeling of being immobilized, of like having every hair pulled from my pores," De'Ontra Johnson, 23, of Richmond said in an interview. She said she was pulled over the night of Sept. 26 after allegedly running through a stoplight in Henrico County.

During the next few minutes, Johnson said, a police officer repeatedly Tasered her, leaving her clothes and car bloody. She was taken to a hospital to remove Taser prongs, she said, and had to spend the night in jail. Now she's dealing with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress. "My nerves are gone. I can't sleep," she said.

Johnson criticized the arresting officer, who is white, for unnecessarily rough treatment and abusive, racially charged language.

Henrico police spokesman Lt. Doug Perry said the officer involved, S.M. Broomell, is a veteran policeman who had to follow Johnson for a mile before she stopped, repeatedly ordered her out of the car without a response and detected a strong odor of alcohol.

Johnson is charged with driving under the influence, running a red light, resisting arrest, and other offenses.

She faces a Nov. 6 court date.

Perry said the matter has been under investigation since Sept. 30, when a formal complaint was made. He described the officer's conduct as "totally appropriate" given the circumstances and denied that the officer used racial epithets.

NAACP Executive Director King Salim Khalfani said the Johnson incident and two others seem to have singled out women for abuse. "We want to know if it is open season on African-American women," he said in a news release.

A second woman, Vivian Stewart, said Chesterfield County police have harassed her since she filed a federal lawsuit in connection with an alleged assault on her by police in 2003. The suit was dismissed. A spokesman for the Chesterfield Police Department could not be reached for comment yesterday.

A third woman repeated earlier public accusations that Richmond police are not following up with an investigation into a supposedly false arrest made while she filmed police outside a nightclub. Police deny there has been a delay.
Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or bmckelway@timesdispatch.com.