<!--Rick Pfeiffer--><table width="234" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" background="http://static.cnhi.zope.net/flashpromo/niagaragazette/images/byline_234x60.jpg" height="60"><tr><td><div align="center"><font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By Rick Pfeiffer</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></font><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="mailto:rick.pfeiffer@niagara-gazette.com">rick.pfeiffer@niagara-gazette.com</a></font></div></td></tr></table>
Jaquinda Coleman’s lawyer says he’s not sure police and prosecutors have much of a case against his client.
So after a brief appearance in Town of Niagara Court Thursday night, Paul Barr said he’s going to take a closer look at the case.
“We (Barr and Niagara County Assistant District Attorney Brian Seaman) talked about the case and I want to talk to some of the witnesses myself,” Barr said. “... I don’t think it’s a case they can prove.”
Coleman 33, 4600 Hyde Park Blvd., Apt. 164, has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree menacing and second-degree harassment in connection with a knife-wielding incident in the parking lot of a Town of Niagara bar and restaurant on Aug. 28.
In November 2008, Coleman pleaded guilty to two counts of disorderly conduct stemming from her involvement in an incident with Falls police. She was originally charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and second-degree obstructing governmental administration in that case, but entered her guilty pleas in a deal with prosecutors that saw the resisting and obstruction charges dropped.
Coleman, who is free on $500 bail, will return to court on Oct. 29 for another hearing. She is also bound by the terms of an order of protection issued by Town Justice John Teixeira that bars Coleman from any contact with the 33-year-old woman who filed the complaint against her with Town of Niagara police.
The woman told officers she was at a restaurant on the 1900 block of Military Road visiting her boyfriend who works there. During the visit, the woman said she was confronted by Coleman.
“The victim states Coleman pushed her numerous times and was verbally abusive toward her,” town police wrote in their report on the incident. “Victim also states Coleman displayed a large kitchen knife that she kept at her side.”
The victim, who is pregnant, told police when Coleman brought out the knife she was in fear for her life and the life of her unborn child. Coleman reportedly gave the knife to a man, described as “her boyfriend ... from Buffalo” and he then threatened the victim’s boyfriend.
“(The victim’s boyfriend) stated that (Coleman’s boyfriend) told him to watch his back and that he would see him on the block,” the police report said.
In the November 2008 incident, Coleman suffered a fractured skull and other injuries after a Falls police officer took her into custody outside her apartment on Feb. 24, 2008. Police had responded to a report of a man hitting a pregnant woman in an apartment near Coleman’s.
When police didn’t immediately arrest the man, Coleman became enraged and began “yelling at officers to ‘do (their) job’.” Coleman also called one officer “a (expletive) racist pig and a Nazi.”
As officers attempted to arrest Coleman, she resisted yelling, “It’s on” and took off her glasses and put up her fists. As Coleman charged at an officer, yelling profanities, she was pepper sprayed.
The pepper spray had no effect on Coleman, who is about 6-feet-2 and weighs roughly 225 pounds, police said. She charged at the officer again. The officer, who was out of pepper spray and “was in fear of being tackled by (Coleman)” and feared she would be able to reach the weapons on his gun belt, then struck her with a flashlight he was holding. Using the flashlight as a weapon is against police procedure.
Coleman has filed a lawsuit against the city and Falls cops in federal court seeking at least $4.5 million dollars in damages as a result of the encounter.
She performed 40 hours of community service work as the sentence for her guilty plea to the disorderly conduct charges.
