The perp was only pretending, but no one told the cop who handcuffed her.
A Long Island teacher playing the role of “pretend perpetrator” in her school’s annual lock-down safety drill was hurt after she was thrown to the ground by a Southampton Town Police officer during the activity, according to a lawsuit.
Christine Capozzola, an elementary school teacher in East Quogue, volunteered to be the security threat in last year’s drill: a mom in the midst of a custody battle, desperate to see her kids.
Capozzola, playing the character, stormed into East Quogue Elementary School demanding to see her “kids,” banging on classroom doors and wandering the halls.
Southampton police did not show up for the drill immediately, as planned, so Principal Robert Long told staffers to call 911. When officers arrived, one “brutally and violently threw Capozzola to the ground,” pinning her face down on the floor and jamming his knee into her back while pulling her arms behind her to handcuff her, she claims in a Brooklyn Federal Court lawsuit.
By the time the drill’s supervisor appeared and ordered her release, Capozzola was limping, with shooting pains in her arms and legs, she charges in court papers filed against the school district, the Town of Southampton and the Southampton police.
The drill “should have never gotten to the point that Capozzola was handcuffed,” she contends in court papers seeking unspecified damages.
It might have been worse: the aggressive officer allegedly told Capozzola, “I was two seconds from tasing you,” she charges.
A lawyer for the town declined comment.