Lawsuit: Cops broke woman's arm

A Feltonville woman has sued the city and two unnamed police officers for civil rights violations, after she says the officers broke her arm when they handcuffed her without cause in August.

Christine Maybin, 48, was sitting on her porch writing letters just after 8 p.m. on Aug. 24, when two officers chased a man out of a vacant house next-door onto her porch on Tiber Street near Rising Sun Avenue, according to the complaint filed Tuesday in federal court.

After handcuffing the man, they then handcuffed Maybin "with unreasonable and unnecessary force" and kept her in custody for a half hour before freeing her, according to the complaint. They found no drugs or contraband on the man and also freed him, the lawsuit states.

Maybin went to the hospital afterward, where doctors determined she suffered an arm fracture and various cuts and put her arm in a cast, her attorney Michael Pileggi said.

"This is just another incident of excessive force" used by police, Pileggi said. "There was no showing of wrongdoing on her part, so she shouldn't have even been put into custody in the first place. And there are no allegations by police that she resisted in any way or did anything that would give them the right to use any force on her."

Lt. John Stanford, a police spokesman, couldn't immediately be reached for comment.