ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 28, 1997 TAG: 9701280064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
ALTHOUGH A STATE POLICE investigation cleared the officers, the $5 million suit alleges officers used excessive force and participated in a cover-up.
A Christiansburg woman shot by police responding to her 911 call for help last year filed a federal lawsuit Monday against the Christiansburg Police Department and the officer who shot her.
Stella Arcaro called a dispatcher April 27 and asked that a mental health specialist come to her aid, according to her suit. Police have said she told them she was armed and suicidal. In her suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, she said she "specifically requested that police officers not be sent."
But police did go to her apartment in Old Farm Village. They said they looked through a window and saw that she had a .22-caliber rifle and decided to surround her apartment.
Arcaro's suit says that several police officers decided to tackle her when she answered the door and that Officer Alicia Smith lay down in the backyard with her pistol drawn.
According to the suit: Arcaro walked outside her back door with the rifle at her side. Someone told her to drop the gun, but she was unaware that it was a police officer. Smith fired at her five times. Arcaro was hit once in each leg, shattering the femur in her left leg and hitting her right calf.
She spent 11 days in a hospital.
Smith was cleared by a state police investigation, which found that Arcaro "waved the gun around" and that the officer had a right to protect herself.
Police have said that Arcaro, 43, pointed her gun at Smith, although the state police investigation showed that officers could not prove Arcaro actually pointed the rifle at a particular officer.
Arcaro was later convicted of the misdemeanor charge of reckless handling of a firearm.
She is suing for $5 million, alleging that Smith and other officers used excessive force, maliciously used deadly force, and participated in an "illegal cover-up" by filing a false affidavit the next day in order to search her apartment. The suit accuses the town of failing to require the Police Department to hire and train qualified personnel.
The suit also seeks compensation for loss of earning capacity and medical expenses.
Christiansburg town attorney William McGhee had not seen the suit and declined to comment Monday.
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