3/20/2023
“My client was released without any charges being filed against her. What happened to her was an absolute tragedy. She was forced to endure a strip search when she was transferred to the [McLean] County Jail. It was a humiliating experience for her that should have never happened. We will be pursuing these claims against the Normal Police Department vigorously.”
Abby Bakos, attorney for Taylor Brown.
As previously reported, Taylor Brown has filed a federal lawsuit against the Normal Police Department alleging she was falsely arrested, illegally had her phone seized from her, and was battered by Normal Police Officers on Thursday, February 9th, 2023. Brown was arrested for Aggravated Battery of Officers and Resisting Officers when she refused to hand over her cell phone to police without a warrant. She was later released from jail without bond and was never charged with any crime.
Brown’s attorney, Abby Bakos, says she still has not received any documents or video from the Normal Police Department regarding her client’s case.
Bakos says the Town of Normal denied her Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request prior to her filing the lawsuit in federal court on February 24th, 2023. The Town stated the information was exempt from public records requests because there was still a pending investigation occurring. (The pending investigation is referring to the fire that occurred at Ms. Brown’s house that night, and it was the reason Brown was at the police department.)
After filing the federal lawsuit, Bakos then filed a court-ordered subpoena for all records but received no response from the Town of Normal.
Meanwhile, Agitation Rising filed the same FOIA request on the 24th of February, and, after several delays, received heavily-redacted police reports and video footage last Friday, March 17th, 2023. Only yesterday, March 20th, 2023, two days after Agitation Rising published all body cam footage (with one video receiving nearly 20,000 views on Youtube), did the Town of Normal contact Ms. Bakos saying they had changed their minds and would be fulfilling her FOIA request. When she asked why they had not responded to her subpoena, the Town of Normal’s legal department claimed they hadn’t received it yet.
Ms. Bakos has still not seen any documents related to her client’s case and has only seen one of the videos posted by Agitation Rising.
“The way they have handled this is raising some major red flags for me,” Ms. Bakos said to Agitation Rising.
Ms. Brown was treated horribly by the police officers. They clearly were attempting to coerce her into talking with them. It is understandable to want to secure the phone to prevent potential deletion of possible evidence. If they had explained this, Ms. Brown seemed like a mature, intelligent young lady who would have understood the reason, even if not agreeing.
Five officers take her to the ground to get a cell phon???!!?? If I were a juror looking at this I would clearly consider this excessive force.
The DA drops charger against her and now after she files a law suit the DA reserves the right to reinstate? It is to coerce her to drop her law suit.
Ms. Brown, my wife and I are 100% backing you as I would guess will be the 12 jurors who may eventually be involved.
You are an intelligent, brave young lady. Stay strong. You are fully in the right.