Freeport Woman Suing Village, County For Alleged Police Brutality

A Freeport woman is suing her village and the Nassau County Sheriff's office, claiming that she was attacked by a sheriff's deputy and that the village tried to cover it up.

Felita Dobbins and her attorney announced today that they were filing the civil rights lawsuit, and are seeking $1 million in damages. The majority of the incident was captured on Dobbins' doorbell camera, but the alleged attack was not.

According to the suit, Dobbins was in her Freeport home on the night of Dec. 30 when two deputies arrived to serve papers to someone who lived at her home. Dobbins can be heard yelling and cursing at the deputies on the video after they served the papers. After they gave her the papers, the deputies walked back to their car, and then came back to the front door a moment later.

One of the deputies, carrying what looks like a folder, is seen to push his arm into the door. Dobbins claims he punched her and threw the papers at her.

“I said some nasty words I shouldn’t have said,” Dobbins said to Newsday. “My emotions got over me because of certain things I’ve been through in life.”

After the incident, Dobbins's suit claims she called the Freeport Police Department, which tried to bury the incident until Dobbins told the it was recorded. Officers took a statement from her, but Dobbins says they never filed a report and refused to give her a copy.

Freeport's village attorney, Howard Colton, told Newsday the charges were "frivolous" and that they would be "vehemently defended."

You can watch Dobbins' recording of the incident here. The video contains strong language.