A Texas state trooper is being investigated after two women claim that he tried to forcibly remove their breast piercings during an arrest.
Local news station NBCFW reports that 18-year-old Tayler Myers and 19-year-old Courtney Palacios claim that Texas state trooper Michael Tice pulled over the car they were riding in and arrested them after he found what he claimed were illegal drugs in the front seat. The two women, who were riding in the backseat, said they had no knowledge of any drugs in the car.
Tice took the two women into custody to the Falls County Jail, where he then told them to remove all piercings from their bodies, including piercings that were on their breasts. He asked the women to pull off their shirts, and they were both able to successfully remove their right-hand side nipple rings.
When the left-hand side rings proved more difficult to remove, however, Tice allegedly brought out a pair of pliers.
"He came up to me and he got really close to it, and he was just staring," Palacios told NBCFW. "He's like, 'I think it unscrews from the left side.' So then, without gloves or anything – and I could see dirt under his nails, it was extremely disgusting – he gets on there and he tries to twist it and he starts shaking from trying so hard and he ends up pulling it and ripping it and it starts bleeding."
Myers, meanwhile, said that a female jailer tried to use the pliers to forcibly remove her breast piercing, but to no avail.
Fort Worth attorney Curtis Fortinberry, who was hired by the two young women to represent them, told NBCFW that Tice had "violated every policy and procedure known to police work" and that it was " just absolutely mind-boggling that he would do this."
Watch the local news report of the incident below.
