A woman who crashed her car while suffering a stroke was ordered out of her vehicle at gunpoint and cuffed by Washington police, before being mocked by jail staff as she lay on the floor for without help for more than 24 hours.
Nicole McClure eventually spent 17 days in hospital after having part of her head removed by surgeons and is now suing Thurston County police for ignoring her symptoms following the crash in March 2022.
How The Arrest Happened
Dashcam video recorded state trooper Jonathan Barnes slamming her over the hood of his car demanding: ‘When’s the last time you used meth? When was the last time you used heroin?’
‘I haven’t … I don’t,’ she pleaded, ‘I’m confused. I think I’m tired.’
She lay vomiting and incontinent for more than a day at the county jail before any medic examined her, and she was finally rushed for emergency surgery.
‘Nicole recalls being laughed at and told “Have another shot,”‘ attorney Anne Vankirk said in a statement.
‘Had Nicole received immediate medical attention, her condition would have been significantly easier to treat and the outcome far less severe.’
Prior to The Arrest
McClure, 40, had left work early suffering from a headache and dizziness when she was spotted by Barnes driving too slowly and weaving out of her lane as she tried to get home to Olympia.
She did not respond when Barnes tried to pull her over, eventually crashing her car into a roundabout.
The officer pulled his gun on her and yelled at her as he approached the wreckage and she stepped out with her hands up.
He accused her of resisting after she did not respond to his demand that she drop the car keys clutched tightly in her hand.
‘She’s trying to use these keys to stab,’ he said on tape.
‘She’s trying to use these keys as a weapon.’
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What Barnes Left Out in His Report
Barnes, who won the ‘Core Values Award’ at his troop’s graduation ceremony in 2019, arrested her on suspicion of intoxicated driving and felony evading but did not test her at the scene for drugs or alcohol and did not call medics, despite the crash.
In his written report, the trooper also struck out a section detailing medical questions with the remark ‘Did not ask.’
How Barnes Handled the Situation
He took her instead to a nearby hospital, where he did not mention the crash but where she was given blood tests for alcohol and drugs that eventually came back negative.
While in the jail, pressure was building inside her brain from a frontal-lobe subdural hematoma.
‘She was left with a notably deteriorating condition and continuing to ask for help,’ Vankirk said.
‘She was found in a puddle of her own urine almost a full day later.’
Two jail staff then helped her onto a bed in the cell after realizing she was unable to stand, and when she began ‘vomiting uncontrollably,’ she was moved to a second cell and ‘forcibly changed’ out of her clothes.
‘A few hours later, a member of the jail’s medical team was called, and they advised that she be taken to the hospital immediately,’ the lawsuit claims.
As it is
McClure underwent emergency brain surgery and had a large piece of her skull to relieve pressure on her brain and ‘save her remaining brain function.’
She spent nearly three weeks in hospital and her lawyers claim she has been left permanently disabled by the delay in her treatment.
‘Nicole is a hardworking young woman who will never be the same again,’ said Vankirk.
