Fircrest police assaulted former basketball standout during traffic stop, lawsuit alleges
A former Curtis High School basketball standout alleges two Fircrest police officers assaulted her and one rested a knee on her neck despite pleas she couldn’t breathe during a traffic stop, according to a lawsuit filed in Pierce County Superior Court.
Jalaiya Frederick, 22, and a passenger were headed south on Pearl Street into Fircrest around 10:30 p.m. on April 19, 2020, when a passing police officer made a U-turn near 19th Street and turned on his lights to pull her over, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in September. The lawsuit said the officer started questioning Frederick about marijuana in the car before telling her the reason for the stop and pulled her out of the vehicle after she asked to call a lawyer.
Video clips shared with The News Tribune by Frederick’s attorney, Thaddeus Martin, show two officers forcing Frederick onto her stomach and one resting his knee on her neck as she cried and complained she couldn’t breathe. Martin declined to give The News Tribune permission to publish the footage captured by Frederick’s passenger, citing privacy concerns.
“The officers essentially pummel plaintiff and slammed her around like a rag doll, injuring her physically and emotionally,” the lawsuit alleges. The complaint does not describe Frederick’s injuries or any medical care she received.
Frederick, who graduated from Curtis in 2018, was playing collegiate basketball at the time of her arrest, according to Martin. She was named to the 4A South Puget Sound League second team in her final season.
The city of Fircrest declined to comment on the case, citing the pending litigation.
Fircrest police officers were not equipped with body-worn cameras at the time of the incident, according to public records officials. The city reached an agreement with law enforcement technology company Axon in January 2022 to begin wearing them.
Martin told The News Tribune racial bias contributed to the officers’ treatment of Frederick, who is Black. He said a white driver would have been treated with more courtesy. Court documents show Frederick listed as about 5 feet tall and 115 pounds.
“It could have been resolved with a, ‘Hey be careful, don’t do that,’” Martin told The News Tribune during a phone interview. “It was totally unnecessary and traumatizing.”
The officer who initiated the traffic stop, John Roberts, wrote in a police report dated the following day that he pulled Frederick over after he saw her drive straight through the traffic light at Pearl and 19th streets while in a center turn lane. He said he smelled marijuana and noticed what appeared to be smoke when he approached the car.
The lawsuit stated that Frederick stopped for a red light at the intersection and proceed through when it turned green.
During the traffic stop, Roberts wrote, he asked Frederick to hand over any marijuana and said he didn’t want to charge her or her passenger with underage possession. Frederick reportedly denied possessing marijuana and refused to get out of her car multiple times for unspecified reasons.
“She started to scream that I could not open her door and that she did not know what was going on,” Roberts wrote in a police report.
Roberts called priority backup and had to unbuckle Frederick to pull her from the car by the back of her jacket, according to his report.
Officer Kevin Gollinger arrived shortly thereafter to help Roberts control Frederick and put her in handcuffs, according to a police report. Gollinger wrote that Frederick was “flailing” around and he put his knee in the area of her neck and shoulder blades.
Sgt. John Villamor determined the officers’ force was justified and within policy due to Frederick’s resistance, according to police documents provided to The News Tribune through a public records request.
Police seized two small glass jars from the car — one with ash and the other with apparent marijuana, according to police reports.
Frederick’s mother drove to the scene, and police agreed to release Frederick rather than book her into jail.
When the mother asked police about apparent injuries to Frederick’s face, the officers at the scene told her the situation could have been avoided if Frederick had cooperated, according to the lawsuit.
Fircrest prosecutors dropped a municipal court citation against Frederick for possessing marijuana as a minor, according to court documents. The lawsuit stated a citation for improper lane travel also was dismissed.
Martin told The News Tribune the car Frederick was driving belonged to a family member and the marijuana wasn’t his client’s.
Frederick’s lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. A tort claim filed against the city in May as a precursor to the lawsuit asked for $350,000.
The city of Fircrest has not filed a response to Frederick’s lawsuit. The city hired Seattle-based Christie Law Group to defend against the lawsuit.
