Accusing a Cheyenne police officer of ripping her out of her car and breaking her foot after a minor traffic incident, an intellectually-disabled Wheatland woman filed a lawsuit against the city and the officer Monday in federal court.
Joann Ockinga filed the civil complaint Monday via her attorney Devon Petersen, in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming, against the city of Cheyenne and Cheyenne Police Officer Alyssa Muzquiz.
The document accuses Muzquiz of using excessive force during a July 8, 2023, police encounter in Cheyenne and for arresting Ockinga wrongfully. The complaint also accuses the city of failing to train its officers properly.
“Officer Muzquiz broke Ms. Ockinga’s ankle, threw Ms. Ockinga onto her right knee, which had recently been replaced in a major surgery, and bruised Ms. Ockinga’s arms,” says the complaint. “Officer Muzquiz… unnecessarily, unreasonably, and violently assaulted Ms. Ockinga.”
The complaint says Ockinga drove to Cheyenne from Wheatland on July 8, 2023, with her two daughters and her son-in-law.
All four of them have learning disabilities, says the document.
In Ockinga’s case, her learning disability kept her in special education when she was in school, impairs her ability to work and gives her a hard time processing information and instructions, wrote Petersen.
That day, the family had gone shopping and to the movies. Tired from the trip, Ockinga asked her son-in-law to drive them back to Wheatland, the document says.
The son-in-law backed the car up and bumped into a truck at a low speed, the document says.
Ockinga didn’t know what to do, so she called a friend, who in turn told her to call police. Ockinga called 911 to report the incident, the complaint says.
Muzquiz responded to the scene and asked Ockinga to get her insurance information
Ockinga searched in her glove compartment but couldn’t find current insurance information. She was nervous and having a hard time understanding the officer’s instructions, wrote Petersen in the complaint.
Out Of The Car
Muzquiz ordered Ockinga’s son-in-law to get out of the vehicle, the complaint says.
“Ms. Ockinga, who had been told by her son-in-law’s mother that her son-in-law should not talk to police officers without his mother present due to his lack of intellectual ability, told officers Muzquiz her son-in-law could not talk to her,” the complaint says.
The document says Muzquiz became “agitated” and told Ockinga to stop interfering.
The son-in-law got out of the vehicle. Muzquiz told him he couldn’t drive without insurance, and if he drove away, she could arrest him, says the complaint, adding that Ockinga also got out of the vehicle because she was concerned for her son-in-law.
Onto The Ground
Muzquiz ordered Ockinga to get back into the vehicle. While Ockinga was getting back into the front passenger seat, the complaint says, Muzquiz changed course and “forcefully removed Ms. Ockinga from the vehicle.”
Here Petersen inserted a body camera video still into the complaint, showing a woman – he identifies her as Ockinga – protesting as a hand encloses around her arm.
“Ms. Ockinga had committed no crime, did not pose an immediate threat to the safety of the offices or others, and was not actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest,” the complaint says, adding that Ockinga also wasn’t threatening anyone or brandishing a weapon.
The complaint says Muzquiz broke Ockinga’s right ankle, cut and bruised Ockinga’s right knee (which had recently undergone a total surgical replacement), and bruised Ockinga’s arms.
Petersen’s complaint includes a body camera still of Ockinga on the ground with a hand clenching her shirt, which is pulled up exposing her belly.
Another camera still shows Ockinga on the ground at another angle, this time with her shirt almost all the way off and a hand gripping her bra area. Two more stills show two sets of hands pulling Ockinga’s wrists together behind her back as she lay on the ground, handcuffing her.
“Ms. Ockinga cried out and writhed in pain on the pavement in front of her children,” Petersen wrote.
Interference
The complaint says Muzquiz and her supervisor had a discussion about whether to cite Ockinga or take her to jail.
“You don’t think I should take her (to jail) at this point with the use of force?” Muzquiz asked, according to the affidavit.
The supervisor said that was up to Muzquiz, the document says.
The complaint says other Cheyenne police officers can be heard in the background laughing and joking.
“Meanwhile, Ms. Ockinga is writhing in pain on the ground, crying ‘Can I lay down please? I hurt. Just kill me. Just kill me. I didn’t realize I did something wrong. I love my kids. I was just trying to help him,’” says the complaint, citing body camera videos.
Green Screen Looks Like This
Those events are all captured on the body camera videos, except for the part where Muzquiz “throws Ms. Ockinga on the ground and breaks her foot,” wrote Petersen, adding, “That portion of the video is missing, replaced by a green screen.”
The narrative is broken by a green rectangle, which Petersen calls a still of the green screen.
Authorities took Ockinga to the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, where an X-ray revealed she’d suffered an acute fracture running across the outside her right ankle, the complaint says, featuring an X-ray of the break.
It also shows two photographs of Ockinga’s foot and ankle, severely bruised and swollen; two photographs of her knee, scuffed and bruised; and four photographs of her arm, mottled with bruises.
Weekend In Jail
The complaint says police recommended a charge of interference with a peace officer, which is a misdemeanor punishable by jail time.
Cowboy State Daily could not find a record of the charge in the state’s courts system Wednesday.
A public records request the outlet placed for the police report from that date is pending.
Ockinga spent three nights and two days in jail and had to attend court several times over the next several months, says the complaint.
She couldn’t return to her kitchen job at the Wheatland hospital for several months, Petersen added.
“Although she has now been able to return to work,” the attorney wrote, “her ankle is still painful and she continues to suffer emotional pain, anxiety, and fear due to the assault.”
The Cheyenne Police Department declined Wednesday to comment on the case, noting that the litigation is pending. The department said Muzquiz was not at liberty to comment during active litigation either.
Cheyenne’s mayor also declined to comment due to the pending litigation.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
