Police suspend 2 officers after arrest incident

CINCINNATI – Two officers accused of handcuffing a 5-year-old boy after a fight on a school bus have been suspended from police duties while the city investigates the allegations, authorities said.

Chief Tom Streicher assigned officers Douglas Snider and Kaneshia Howell to desk work Tuesday and took away their guns, police officials said. Mekel Finch, the boy’s mother, sued the police department, the bus company and the driver in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court on April 29. She is asking for more than $50,000.

The lawsuit claims the driver improperly detained the boy – allegedly grabbing the child around the neck and wrapping her legs around him before calling for aid – after the boy was struck by another child on the bus Jan. 13.

The lawsuit also claims the boy was hiding under a seat when Snider and Howell arrived and put him in handcuffs “for an unreasonable amount of time.” The child wasn’t charged.

In a similar case, police in St. Petersburg, Fla., handcuffed a 5-year-old girl on March 14 after she tore papers off a bulletin board and allegedly punched an assistant principal in kindergarten class. Police were investigating why three officers pinned her arms behind her back and put on handcuffs as she screamed, “No!”

In Cincinnati, the bus company said it investigated and found nothing improper in how the fight was handled. Pete Settle, president of Petermann bus company, called the lawsuit frivolous. He said a videotape from the bus would be made available to authorities.

Fanon Rucker, the lawyer representing Finch and her son Izell, said the other boy in the fight was not handcuffed. Rucker said marks from the handcuffs remained on Izell’s wrists several days, and that he has nightmares and hides when he hears a siren or sees a police officer.

“He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder a few days later and has been receiving counseling since the incident,” Rucker said Thursday.

“He’s just really going through a lot right now,” the mother told The Cincinnati Enquirer.

City Solicitor J. Rita McNeil, representing the police department, said Thursday that she could not comment on pending litigation. Messages were left at the police department for the two suspended officers, whose home numbers are unlisted.

“The investigation has just begun, and all we have at this time are the allegations in the lawsuit,” McNeil said.

Vice Mayor Alicia Reece said the city needs to establish a policy for police handling of small children.

“We send the wrong message if we are handcuffing 5-year-olds,” she said.

Finch said she complained to the Citizens Complaint Authority, and a police sergeant told her notations would be placed in the officers’ personnel files saying they behaved inappropriately.