Woman who called the cops and got roughed up and arrested files civil-rights lawsuit

Dyma Loving, the South Miami-Dade woman tackled to the ground and arrested by police after calling them because a man had threatened her with a shotgun, filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit this week complaining of improper conduct by the officers involved and by the department that employs them.

Some of the claims in the lawsuit: false arrest and imprisonment, negligent hiring and supervision, excessive use of force and the intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The 23-page claim, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, claims Miami-Dade Police Officer Alejandro Giraldo began peppering Loving and her friend Adrianna Green with questions after Frank Tumm, the man the two women said pulled the shotgun on them, told police he didn’t have a weapon.

Giraldo’s first question to the women, according to the lawsuit, was who called Giraldo a slur. Green admitted to it, but said she was responding to Tumm, 50, who called them “hookers.” She said he had been calling them names for days. When officer J.F. Calderon asks why they hadn’t called police earlier, Green said she hadn’t thought about it until he pulled “a freaking gun.”

The 11-count lawsuit also includes charges of battery and civil conspiracy. It names Giraldo, Calderon, the Miami-Dade Police Department and Miami-Dade County as plaintiffs.

“Instead of receiving protection from the very officers that Dyma called, she instead was assaulted by Giraldo and Calderon while they were encouraged by the officers who were present,” said Loving’s attorney, Justin Moore.

In a prepared statement, Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez said he couldn’t speak directly to the lawsuit or the incident, but touted the implementation of police body-worn cameras — which catapulted the confrontation between Loving and police into a national conversation.

“We are a resource for the community,” Perez said. “If and when we ever fall short of our mission, we hold ourselves accountable because we are a professional law enforcement organization.”

Giraldo’s attorney Teri Guttman-Valdes declined to comment directly on Loving’s arrest or Giraldo being relieved of duty by the director, but said she understands that before Giraldo was placed on desk assignment his immediate supervisors signed off on the arrest and the use of force.

Loving, 26, was arrested in early March and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest without violence after her call to police about Tumm pointing a shotgun at her and friend Green, 22, turned into an interrogation of the mother of two and a rough take-down by police.

Cellphone video taken by Green lit up social media sites and caused outrage in the local community and beyond. Perez, the police director, immediately placed Giraldo, Loving’s main interrogator, on desk duty. He then released footage from a body camera worn by Giraldo that provided a much clearer picture of the officer’s interactions with Loving.

In it, the officer threatened to involuntarily commit Loving, said he didn’t like the tone of Loving’s voice and threatened her with arrest if she didn’t calm down. Loving never threatens the officer in the video, speaks for the most part calmly and only becomes agitated as she is peppered with questions.

Loving asks Giraldo why she is being questioned and just before she’s taken into custody tells the police, “I need to call my kids. I don’t understand.” At that point three officers push Loving into a chain-link fence, pull her to the ground and handcuff her.

Loving and Green told police they were walking past Tumm’s home when he began spouting racist remarks at them and pulled out a shotgun after the women responded to him. The lawsuit claims Tumm said he would “shoot [her] burnt black ass face off [her] neck.” The women said they quickly walked away from the front of the property to a street corner and called police.

Tumm was not initially arrested. Police said he refused to leave his property and a witness originally claimed he didn’t have a weapon. That witness changed his version as he continued to talk to police. A week after the incident — and long after the videos of Loving’s encounter with police sparked an outcry from the public — Tumm was taken into custody and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

The charges against Loving were later dropped. Giraldo remains suspended.

This story was originally published April 11, 2019 at 1:27 PM.