Salisbury, Rowan settle suit with elderly woman who was pulled by hair at police stop
The city of Salisbury and the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office will pay out $125,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a 71-year-old librarian who was pulled from her car by her hair during a 2019 traffic stop.
The woman, Stephanie Bottom, said she was driving to a funeral and posing no threat to police officers when they stopped her on Interstate 85 for driving 80 mph in a 70 mph zone and failing to heed blue lights. In addition to the rough handling, Bottom endured a torn rotator cuff and a dislocated shoulder, her federal lawsuit says.
Bottom is glad to be done with the case but wishes the incident had never happened, she said Thursday.
The injuries she suffered to her left arm still make it impossible for her to lift stacks of books or to style her hair, said Bottom, who lives in Atlanta and works for the Fulton County library system. As a result, she has shaved her hair and has begun wearing a wig.
“I truly hope this will give an example to police to not mistreat elderly people as they did,” she said.
How did it happen?
Bottom said the traffic stop happened while she was driving to Raleigh for a funeral on the night of May 30, 2019. She was playing loud music inside her car and initially didn’t notice that police were trying to stop her, she said. She was 66 at the time.
Once she realized police were behind her, she said, she tried to find a safe place to pull off the road.
A Rowan County sheriff’s deputy used spike strips to immobilize her car, which came to a stop on the highway median. Former Salisbury Police Officer Devin Barkalow and another officer approached Bottom with guns drawn, screaming at her to exit her car.
“Within five seconds of arriving at her drivers’ side door with guns drawn,“ the officers grabbed her by her arm and hair and threw her to the ground, her lawsuit alleged.
Once Bottom was face down on the ground, officers tried to twist her arms behind her back. Bottom “shouted with pain” and told the officers to stop hurting her, saying that a previous injury prevented her from putting her arms behind her back, according to her complaint.
Barkalow forced her left arm behind her to the point where her wrist was near her neck, according to the lawsuit. “Eventually the force applied by Defendant officers caused Plaintiff’s shoulder to “pop,” tearing her rotator cuff and dislocating her shoulder, the lawsuit states.
Unnecessary force
The settlement with the city of Salisbury occurred this month, according to Scott Holmes, one of the lawyers who represented Bottom. It came weeks after U.S. District Judge William Osteen refused to dismiss the lawsuit’s claims against Barkalow, concluding that his use of force was excessive.
Another officer who took part in the traffic stop, Rowan County Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Benfield, testified “that he believed he could have talked Ms. Bottom out of her vehicle if Officer Barkalow had waited 10 to 15 more seconds to intervene,” the judge stated in an order issued last month.
“A reasonable officer in the situation would have known, as Officer Benfield did, that it was unnecessary to forcefully pull an older woman from the vehicle by her hair onto the ground after providing her mere seconds to comply with orders to exit,” Osteen wrote
Barkalow, who no longer works for the Salisbury police, could not be reached Thursday. An attorney representing the city of Salisbury in the case did not respond to a request for an interview.
Bottom said she’s convinced that her race played a role in the traffic stop. “It’s a matter of driving while Black,” she told The Charlotte Observer.
In his August order, Osteen did not find evidence that the police engaged in selective enforcement.
Holmes said the case “sends a message to law enforcement and policy makers about the continued need to treat people with respect and protect their Constitutional rights during traffic stops.”
Holmes, who directs the civil litigation clinic at the North Carolina Central University School of Law, was assisted in the long-running case by at least 20 of his law students, he said. Bottom was also represented by Ian Mance, an attorney for Emancipate NC, a Durham-based civil right organization.
These days, Bottom says, she is more cautious about her driving.
“I stay in the slow lane,” she said. “And I stay right at the speed limit. I don’t want to do this ever, ever again.”
Editor’s note: This story was modified to remove a sentence describing former Salisbury police officer Devin Barkalow calling Stephanie Bottom names. While the accusations were part of Bottom’s original lawsuit, it was subsequently learned that the former officer was referring to someone else, according to attorney Scott Holmes.
This story was originally published September 28, 2023 at 2:17 PM.
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