Watch: Lexington Police arrest homeless woman, allegedly breaking her leg and sparking lawsuit

Lexington, Ky.–A homeless woman has filed a lawsuit against the Lexington Police Department, CHI Saint Joseph Health and others, after her arrest while at Saint Joseph East’s emergency department.

During a March 2022 hospital stay, police were called and Trapp was dismissed and urged to leave the hospital multiple times. Trapp eventually left the hospital building. However, when outside the hospital, a responding officer grabbed her arm, forcing her to the ground and breaking her leg, the lawsuit alleges. Trapp was charged with trespassing and resisting arrest, but she and her attorney argue that she should not have been arrested in the first place. Trapp admitted to drinking that night.

Trapp’s attorney and another advocate said that her treatment that night was degrading and not the way authority figures should treat our most vulnerable citizens. “Linda’s part of a marginalized community,” Her attorney, John Reynolds, told LEX18. “And you can see that night on the video that she was dismissed, she was literally shooed away from the hospital, and she was wrongfully arrested.”

Catholic Action Center director Ginny Ramsey also spoke with LEX18. “As human beings and as humanity, as a faith-based hospital, I can’t believe they wouldn’t make the effort to find a way for her to get back to the center,” Ramsey said, referring to the lack of effort made by officers and hospital staff to help Trapp return to the Catholic Action Center, the homeless shelter where she planned to stay on that cold March night.

Watch the police body camera footage of the arrest below:

Body worn camera footage of Trapp’s arrest. (WLEX)

Photo: An LPD officer looks on shortly before Linda Trapp is arrested at St. Joseph East Hospital on March 10, 2022. (Body camera video screenshot)