Body camera video shows LMPD cite woman for unlawful camping after she said she was in labor
By: -----
Louisville police released body camera video Thursday showing an officer citing a woman for street camping as she sat under an interstate overpass complaining that she was in labor.
The video dated Sept. 27 shows a Louisville Metro Police officer, identified by an LMPD spokesperson as Lt. Caleb Stewart, approach a woman seen picking up some belongings next to two mattresses lying under an interstate ramp near downtown.
As Stewart exits his cruiser and walks toward the woman, she tells him "I'm waiting for an ambulance, I might be going into labor, is that OK?"
When asked if she had called for one, the woman tells Stewart she doesn't have a phone and her husband had just gone to find one to call for an ambulance.
"I'm leaking out. ... I'm leaking water, all of my amniotic fluid I'm leaking out," she told Stewart, who calls EMS for assistance in the area of East Washington and Hancock.
The woman begins walking away as EMS asks Stewart how far along she is. He follows her and asks how far along she is. When she doesn't answer, he shouts at her to stop several times before she asks if she's being detained.
"Yes, you are being detained," Stewart says.
"For what?" she asks.
"You're being detained because you're unlawfully camping," he responds, before asking again how far along she is. The woman says she's due Oct. 29 and is going to find her husband.
"I gotta go to the hospital," she says through tears. After Stewart says an ambulance is on the way, she asks, "what the f*** am I doing wrong? I'm walking out to the street." Stewart repeats that he has an ambulance on the way, and the woman asks again what she's doing wrong by walking to the street to wait for EMS.
Officers walk her to the street and as she continues ahead of them, Stewart yells at her to stop and stand next to him out of the street.
"OK, but you don't have to holler, and you don't have to push me," she responds. "I haven't done anything to you."
As city workers clear the encampment, Stewart walks back to his police truck. As soon as he enters the vehicle and drives it closer to the street where the woman is waiting, he says, "I don't believe for one second that this lady's gone into labor, but I called EMS, I asked for them code three just in case I'm wrong."
Stewart claims the woman has "pulled this kind of stuff before," and that as soon as she's "observed violating some kind of law, that she'll make up some outlandish story about what's going on."
He exits the vehicle, and writes the citation before handing it to the woman, who is now sitting on the ground.
"I'm issuing you a citation for unlawful camping, OK?" Stewart tells her. "You can't camp out or sleep on sidewalks, under underpasses or bridges. And we've warned you about this before, OK? You've got a court date on Nov. 8 at 9 a.m. at the courthouse at 600 West Jefferson. ..."
The woman took the citation, crumbled it up and tossed it on the ground. As she gets up and gathers her belongings, she puts the citation in her pocket before eventually leaving with EMS. She was cited for unlawful camping, a first offense.
"You're all horrible people," she said as she gathered her things. "I'm glad y'all got this job, to f*** with the homeless and not help society. Y'all got this job to f*** with the homeless, people that don't even really do anything."
Ryan Dischinger, the woman's public defender, said she gave birth later that same day.