Handcuffed Black Woman Beaten by Milwaukee Police Speaks Out - Police Refuse to Release Video

From [HERE] MILWAUKEE - Months later, the woman who was hit by an officer while in Milwaukee police custody is speaking out about the incident.

Just last week, police officials said Officer Richard Schoen was fired for using excessive force against a black woman he stopped for swerving her car. "There is video camera (footage) showing what happened in the back seat, clearly shows that the Officer Schoen, with a closed fist, punches Ms. Tracy in her head at least four times," Tracy's attorney, Todd Korb said. Despite repeated requests, police have not released that video.

The victim, Jeanine Tracy, said the incident started last September when she was driving on North 51st Boulevard and she saw police lights in her rearview mirror.

"Never, never have I been more scared than this," Tracy said. "He was, like, 'Do you have any open cases,' I said, 'You can just run the check, you have my license. Then I asked the other officer could he stop talking to my daughter because she's a minor."

Tracy said the officer ordered her out of the car.

"He asked me to sit on the curb. I said, 'I'm unable to do that because my leg is injured,' and he said, 'You can get in the back of the police car,' and I'm thinking he was accommodating me. Then I see, 'No, I'm getting cuffs slapped on my wrist,'" Tracy said.

Since being caught in a cement auger at work two years ago, Tracy said she has had a half-dozen surgeries on her leg. At the time of the traffic stop, she was still recovering.

In his incident report, Schoen said he arrested Tracy after she "began to argue and shout profanity," and that she "repeatedly spat on the Plexiglas" partition and "started to shout that her leg hurt."

The officer said Tracy lunged at him in what he thought was "an attempt to bite or spit at me." He wrote that he delivered "four focused strikes with my right hand, impacting the right side of her face. Tracy continued to kick her legs, and I then delivered a single reactive knee strike to her back."

Tracy said police held her in custody for three days. Officers arrested her on a resisting arrest charge but prosecutors eventually dropped the case.

When approached to speak about the incident at his home, Schoen refused to comment.

Tracy said she's thankful the department fired Schoen, but is frustrated the district attorney chose not to file criminal charges against him.

"If you did it to me, you would get in trouble, if I did it to you, I would get in trouble. So I thought -- I feel like he should have been charged for what he did to me," Tracy said.

Tracy asked the district attorney to file battery charges against Schoen but the DA declined after reviewing the video. Officials said it was unclear whether Schoen intended to cause her pain or injury and they said Tracy's recollection of events is inconsistent with the video, and she suffered no visible injury.