SOLANO COUNTY, Calif. — The Solano County Sheriff's Office is responding after a federal civil rights lawsuit claimed a Black woman who pulled off a road to change drivers during a trip with family members was attacked and knocked unconscious by two sheriff’s deputies.
The lawsuit stems from an incident where the deputies knocked Nakia Porter unconscious and arrested her after she had pulled off the road, near Dixon, on Aug. 6, 2020, to change drivers when the deputies squad car pulled up behind and confronted her and her father. The lawsuit goes on to allege the deputies then lied about the encounter to paramedics and on official reports.
Cameras worn by the deputies with the Solano County Sheriff’s Office recorded them pulling guns on Porter near Dixon before slamming her to the pavement while handcuffing her.
Porter was jailed overnight on suspicion of resisting arrest, but she was never charged.
On Monday, the sheriff's office released a full-length video of the incident to the public and provided their own account of what happened.
According to the sheriff's office, the deputies were parked at the dead end of Chevron Way in Dixon for an unrelated call for service when a silver SUV made a U-turn in front of them. Deputies did a traffic stop after noticing license plates from two different states on the SUV and said that they told the driver to get back in the car after she and a passenger got out to change seats.
The sheriff's office said the driver refused to get back in the SUV multiple times and, as she was being detained, she allegedly slipped her hand out of her handcuffs and hit a deputy in the face. She was re-cuffed after a brief struggle, taken to the hospital by her own request, and then taken to the jail, according to the sheriff's office.
To watch the full video from the sheriff's office, click HERE.