Woman says a state trooper pulled out her breast piercing with pliers

A Fort Worth woman claims a state trooper pulled a piercing out of her breast with pliers, leaving her bleeding, after she was arrested during a traffic stop in Central Texas this week.

The Texas Department of Public Safety trooper, Michael Tice, has been placed on administrative duty and is under investigation by the Texas Rangers, NBC 5 reported Friday night.

The incident happened Monday in Marlin, southeast of Waco.

Two Fort Worth women — Tayler Myers, 18, and Courtney Palacios, 19 — were riding in a car on their way home from a concert in Houston when Tice stopped the car for speeding, NBC 5 reported.

Tice found a pill in the car and arrested Myers and Palacios and two men for drug possession, the women told the TV station.

When they got to the Falls County Jail, the women said Tice told them to remove any piercings.

Myers asked about their nipple rings, according to NBC 5.

Tice told the women, “You are going to have to do it right here, in the open,” Myers said.

When the women couldn’t manage to get both of their piercings out, Tice went to his car and returned with pliers, NBC 5 reported.

“He’s like, ‘I think it unscrews from the left side,’” Palacios told NBC 5. “So then, without gloves or anything — and I could see dirt under his nails, it was extremely disgusting — he gets on there and he tries to twist it and he starts shaking from trying so hard and he ends up pulling it and ripping it and it starts bleeding.”

Palacios said Tice backed away but didn’t offer medical attention.

Both she and Myers, the daughter of a Fort Worth police sergeant, have hired Fort Worth attorney Curtis Fortinberry. They are considering a lawsuit, NBC 5 reported.

This story was originally published November 5, 2016 at 10:11 AM with the headline "Woman says a state trooper pulled out her breast piercing with pliers."