A woman, Malia Ashad, has filed a federal lawsuit against several sheriff’s deputies, accusing them of assaulting her while she was hospitalized and awaiting a CT scan at the Kaiser Permanente San Leandro Medical Center in California.
According to the lawsuit filed on February 1, 2022, Ashad was already injured when deputies allegedly punched her in the head, grabbed her throat, and left a boot imprint on her back on August 9, 2022.
The incident began at a civil hearing in Alameda County Superior Court on the same day, where Ashad was attacked by a woman she had a restraining order against.
Video footage shared by Ashad’s attorneys shows the alleged attacker repeatedly hitting Ashad in the head and face with a cellphone in the courtroom.
Upon expecting assistance from deputies, Ashad claims she was instead forcefully apprehended, handcuffed, and taken to a room where she lost her balance, hit her head on a table, and fell to the floor.
She alleges further assault by deputies in the emergency room while she was handcuffed to a hospital bed.