Nov. 20, 2009 (United Press International) -- Jurors looked at a Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) store video of a scuffle that led to the arrest of a black woman in Missouri on charges including assaulting police officers.
In one of the tapes, taken from a camera above a cash register and played in court Thursday, the woman, Heather Ellis, 24, appears to shove merchandise to the side of a conveyor belt at a cash register several times, CNN reported.
Another tape shows police leading her from the store as she holds her arm in the air. A third, taken from the parking lot, shows officers handcuffing her and her kicking backward at police, the reported said.
Ellis' attorney said she did so after police assaulted her.
Ellis is charged with assaulting police officers, resisting arrest and disturbing the peace in connection with the January 2007 incident in Kennett, Mo. She could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
She said white patrons shoved her and uttered racial slurs when she switched checkout lanes. When store employees refused to give her change, she called police, she said. One police officer said, "Go back to the ghetto," and another handled her roughly, she said.
Witnesses and police, however, say Ellis butted in line, moved another customer's purchases to make room for hers, kicked one officer and split another's lip.
Al Fischer, one of the officers who responded, testified Thursday Ellis shouted, threatened him and kicked and swung when he tried to handcuff her.
Ellis, a schoolteacher who is engaged to a state trooper, refused an offer from prosecutors two years ago in which she would have received probation in exchange for dropping her complaint against police, said her father, the Rev. Nathaniel Ellis.
"She decided not to sign it, because she was taught to never admit guilt when you're innocent," he said, adding his daughter was a victim of "blatant, overt racism."
Officials with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the American Civil Liberties Union say the case reflects racial bias in the town, where blacks comprise 13 percent of the population.
