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.
On February 9th, 2023, a fire occurred at Ms. Brown’s residence at approximately 12:32 AM. Brown was asked by Normal police officer Serena Cunningham if she was willing to come to the station for a voluntary interview about the incident. Brown agreed.
Brown alleges she waited in an interview room for forty minutes without anyone talking with her. Brown attempted to leave. Officer Cunningham told Brown that a detective was almost ready to speak with her. However, it was nearly 4 AM, and Brown demanded to leave as she was not under arrest. Officer Cunningham offered to drive Brown to a place to sleep, but had Brown wait in the Station Lobby for several more minutes.
According to heavily redacted police files obtained via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, Officer Cunningham was directed by Detective Tyler VanWynsberg to seize Brown’s cellphone for their investigation into the fire which occurred the prior day. Brown was still free to leave and was not being arrested for any crime.
Officer Cunningham then went to the lobby to seize Brown’s phone. At this point, Brown was Facetiming her mother, a Chicago Police Officer. Officer Cunningham demanded Brown’s cellphone. But, she did not have any warrant to seize it and never communicated what probable cause the police had to seize the phone without consent, beyond saying it was for the fire investigation.
After several requests for the phone to be turned over without violence, Officer Cunningham, Officer Max Yanor, Officer Kyle McComber, Officer Nicholas Kosenesky, Officer Nicholas Hines, & Sergeant Landon Richmond took Brown’s phone from her by force. Brown refused, seizing up in a ball on the floor, as officers attempted to straighten her out and secure the phone.
Officers claim Brown resisted kicking several of them in the head and refused to be subdued. Brown was then arrested for Aggravated Battery of a Police Officer and Resisting a Police Officer. Footage of the incident from multiple cameras is available below.
Brown claims she kicked the police because she was being manhandled, she couldn’t move, and she was scared. Brown claims it was not aggravated battery because she was defending herself from being attacked.
Despite being arrested for the above charges and transported to the McLean County Detention Facility, Brown was released from the jail at 12:19 PM later that day. She was not charged with any crime. In fact, her information doesn’t even come up in a court records search.
According to Brown’s lawsuit, the police department attempted to secure a search warrant from the State’s Attorney which they claim was not approved. This has not been independently verified. Brown’s lawsuit also says NPD returned her phone to her two hours after her release from jail.
To this day, Brown has still not been charged with any crime related to the violent incident involving the above named officers or the fire at her house. This begs the question, why was all this necessary?
UPDATED: 03/28/2023; 04/01/2023
This article was originally published at strangecornersofthought.com.
