ST. LOUIS (AP) - A former St. Louis police officer who is accused of giving two handcuffed men a "rough ride" is being tried this week on misdemeanor assault charges.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that prosecutors say 48-year-old Lori Wozniak slammed on the brakes of a police van in August 2018, causing two men in the back seat to slide into a metal barrier. One of them suffered a cut above his eye.
Officers had arrested the men at a church where they allegedly damaged a marquee and were fighting.
Prosecutors say that after the men said obscene things about Wozniak, she told a sergeant she wanted to stop the vehicle abruptly at every stop sign. The defense downplayed the comment as "nothing more than police sarcasm."
Wozniak left the police department in October 2018 after an internal affairs investigation.