Tampa to pay $42,500 to woman who said police officer broke her arm during arrest

Tampa City Council on Thursday agreed to pay $42,500 to settle a lawsuit filed by a woman who says a Tampa police officer broke her arm during an arrest in 2012.

Melanie Brooke Levy, 43, was arrested outside an Applebee’s restaurant on W Hillsborough Avenue, according to court and police records.

Levy, who lived in Pinellas County at the time, said in her lawsuit that she was with a group in the parking lot outside the restaurant when Officer Mark W. Vazquez came outside from his dinner and told everyone to leave the area.

Levy got into the passenger seat of her girlfriend’s car and Vazquez told her she was under arrest and “physically removed” from the car, then threw her onto the asphalt and forced her right arm behind her back, breaking it, according to the lawsuit.

Read more: http://www.tbo.com/news/crime/tampa-to-pay-42500-to-woman-who-said-police-officer-broke-her-arm-during-arrest-20161006/