The attorney representing a pregnant woman who says her jaw was broken in a road rage confrontation last week says his client is a victim and shouldn't have been cited by police for assault.
Niesha Woods was pulling out of her sister's apartment building near Arapaho and the North Dallas Tollway last Thursday when she nearly struck a man on a motorcycle, her attorney, Justin Moore, said in a statement.
In a news conference Monday morning, Woods said she never saw the man on the motorcycle until he confronted her down the road and threw an object at her car.
When she got out of her car to see if there was any damage, Moore said the motorcycle rider walked up to her, began yelling and using foul language.
Woods told the man that she is 5 months pregnant and that her 11-year-old son was in the car in an attempt to bring calm to the situation, but she said the man said he didn't care, threatened to kill her and then spat in her face.
"I told him if he touched me, he'd go to jail and he told me 'good luck with that,' Woods said.
Woods admitted she pushed the man away from her, after which she said he hit her in the face and broke her jaw in two places.
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She called 911 and Addison police arrived at the scene, who then turned the call over to the Dallas police because it was determined to be in their jurisdiction.
When Dallas police arrived about 45 minutes later, Moore said they ignored the fact that she was the one who called for help and that she suffered "serious injuries from the assault."
Woods' sister, Nekia, who spoke on her sister's behalf Monday while she recovers from surgery to repair her broken jaw, said the motorcycle rider talked with officers with both the Addison and Dallas departments but was not cited in the incident.
"No woman, especially a woman carrying a child, should be a victim of such a crime. Furthermore, no woman who was brutalized in such a manner should be forced to endure humiliation from the same officers that she called to the scene," Moore said.
Dallas police said the officer decided to issue a Class C misdemeanor citation for assault to Woods based on multiple, independent witness accounts of what took place. They added that the citation is not an admission of guilt, but a promise to address the alleged charge, and that she is entitled to due process.
Moore is asking for the Dallas Police Department to investigate the responding officer's conduct in citing his client and not the man who hit her. He's also asking that they dismiss the citation against Woods and that "the man who assaulted Niesha be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
