Published: May 07, 2008 09:08 pm            

CITY COURT: Coleman’s court date pushed back to July

Woman charged in brawl with Falls cops will return to court in July

A jury trial date for a Falls woman charged in a confrontation with Cataract City cops that left her with a fractured skull and other injuries has been put off until July.

Jaquinda Coleman, 31, 4600 Hyde Park Blvd., Apt. 155, received the delay in picking a trial date after her Buffalo-based defense attorney, Joel Daniels, was unable to make a Falls City Court appearance on Wednesday morning. Coleman, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and second-degree obstructing governmental administration will be back in court July 9.

She is currently free on $1,000 bail and asked City Court Judge Angelo Morinello to reduce that. The judge said he could not because the case is on Judge Robert Merino’s calendar and he was just sitting in for the Wednesday hearing.

Coleman was charged after a confrontation on Feb. 24, that followed a police investigation into a domestic incident that involved a relative.

In an interview from her hospital bed, days after the confrontation, Coleman indicated she would file a complaint charging officers used excessive force while arresting her. Coleman has still not filed a complaint with Falls police.

She has also threatened to sue the city but has not yet filed the required notice of claim. The time limit for making the filing expires on May 24.

Coleman was hospitalized for more than a week as a result of her injuries. So far, she has said little about the police account of what happened.

“I want my story told, but I have to be careful in my comments to the media,” was all she would say in a brief phone conversation with a Gazette reporter in March.

Police say they responded to a report of a man hitting a pregnant woman in an apartment at Monteagle Ridge, an apartment complex in the 4600 block of Hyde Park Boulevard on Feb. 24 and family members, including Coleman, were “yelling at officers to ‘do our job’ and arrest (the woman’s boyfriend).”

Officers said Coleman became agitated after the boyfriend was not charged at the scene and called one officer “an (expletive) racist pig and a Nazi.” Police said Coleman also began yelling, “I don’t have to listen to you. I only listen to God you white supremacist.”

Officers said Coleman fought with them and was eventually sprayed with chemical spray. An officer who said he “was in fear of being tackled by (Coleman)” and feared she would be able to reach the weapons on his gun belt, struck the woman with his flashlight as she charged him.

In a report on the incident, the officer indicated he “swung the flashlight in a downward motion” attempting to hit Coleman in the rear shoulder to knock her off balance and escape her. However, as Coleman came at the officer she was struck in the head.

Coleman was transported to Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center for treatment of her injuries, before being transferred to the Erie County Medical Center.

The victim did, later on, press charges against her boyfriend.

Steven D. Newkirk Sr., 37, 114 Dominion Ave., Apt. 1, was charged with second-degree harassment, second-degree aggravated harassment, endangering the welfare of a child and fourth-degree criminal mischief. His case is pending in Falls City Court.

        

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