Milwaukee cops arrest 75-year-old car crash victim over fake 'black man' at the scene

Milwaukee police arrested a 75-year-old woman on Tuesday after harassing her immediately following an auto accident, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported.

"She said things like what are your grandchildren going to think of you," Joy McFarlin said of her encounter with police. "She said there was a video of a black man getting out of the truck, and I was lying. This went on and on. She kept saying I would go to jail for some man."

McFarlin said police immediately targeted her after her pickup -- which used to belong to her husband, who is now deceased -- was hit by another vehicle running a red light. The impact left her driver's side door facing traffic, she told the Journal-Sentinel, so she escaped through the passenger-side door with the help of an unidentified man.

However, she said, the man was white, contrary to what officers later alleged. He also left the scene after paramedics arrived to assist her. Two officers, a man and a woman, arrived later, with the female officer taking "an aggressive pose" and threatening to take her to jail unless she was up-front about the collision.

The officers continued questioning McFarlin after she was taken to a local hospital, she said, playing "good cop-bad cop."

"When I thought about it afterward, they both overplayed it," McFarlin noted.

After rebuffing the officers' allegation that a "black man" was at the scene, McFarlin said, they handcuffed and arrested her, before taking her in for questioning. However, she was later released without any charges pressed against her.

"It was as if I had gone into the Twilight Zone," McFarlin said. "I was so frightened."

A police spokesperson, Sgt. Timothy Gauerke, told the Journal-Sentinel that the officers gave McFarlin "a break" by handcuffing her with her arms in front, rather than behind her. He also said that witnesses accused her of lying about driving the pickup, and so used "common police technique" to push her into saying so.

"It's to encourage the person, 'Look, the jig is up, we know what happened. You may as well just tell us," he said. "She stuck with her story and that's why she was arrested."

No other injuries have been reported in connection with the collision, though McFarlin said she still suffers from pain in her back, chest, and neck. She does not plan to file a complaint, and instead contacted the Journal-Sentinel to tell her story.

[h/t The Free Thought Project]