SHENANDOAH, Texas – What started as a traffic stop for a turn signal violation and dim license plate lights ended with a Conroe woman in handcuffs, pleading for help and repeatedly asking for a female officer.
KPRC 2 exclusively obtained bodycam video showing the May 21 arrest of 40-year-old Elizabeth Kim off I-45 in Shenandoah.
“Please, it scares me so much. I’m so scared,” Kim can be heard saying in the back of a patrol vehicle.
Kim said she had just gotten off work and was heading to the gym when a Montgomery County sheriff’s deputy pulled her over around 9:30 p.m.
The bodycam video shows the deputy getting out of his patrol vehicle and immediately yelling commands from a distance.
“Hey driver, can you step back here?” the deputy is heard saying in the video. “Come here! Come talk to me!”
Kim said she was confused because the deputy did not first walk up to her window.
“I’m just sitting there waiting,” Kim said. “Normally, they just come to your window and you roll it down.”
About four minutes into the encounter, the deputy eventually approached the passenger side window and identified himself. He told Kim she was stopped for failing to use her turn signal and because her license plate light was too dim.
Kim eventually stepped out of the vehicle but called her mother as the encounter continued. Moments later, the deputy put her in handcuffs.
Kim was charged with interfering with public duties and resisting arrest.
In the video, Kim repeatedly tells deputies she is scared and asks for a female officer.
Kim said she is a rape survivor and does not handle situations with men well.
“I want a female officer,” Kim is heard saying in the bodycam footage. “You’re scaring me.”
Kim told KPRC 2 she was in panic mode.
“I didn’t think I would ever be in the situation, let alone a police officer,” Kim told KPRC 2.
The deputy later called the district attorney’s office to discuss charges. During that call, the deputy explains Kim was on the phone with her mother. A person on the other end of the call appears to question whether that alone was enough for an arrest.
“Her on the phone, that’s not enough,” the D.A. could be heard saying on the call.
KPRC 2 showed the video to Dr. Greg Fremin, a retired Houston Police Department captain with 34 years of law enforcement experience.
“That is highly unusual to see a minor traffic violation occur where the officer is screaming, almost yelling commands for the driver to come out and meet him halfway back,” Fremin said.
Fremin said he believes the stop escalated unnecessarily.
“It totally got escalated to the point on his behalf where it did not have to result in this young woman being taken into custody,” Fremin said.
Fremin said, in his opinion, there was not enough probable cause for the arrest.
“Looking at this video, this is the exception and not the rule for these officers actions,” said Fremin.
Kim showed KPRC 2 bruises on her inner thighs that she says were left from the encounter.
“I’m pretty messed up right now,” Kim said. “They think this is okay, and this is normal. It’s not okay.”
KPRC 2 reached out to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office about the deputy’s actions. A spokesperson said they would inquire with the proper command staff and get back to us.
KPRC 2 is not naming the deputy at this time as we work to confirm whether he is under internal investigation.
We asked for the deputy’s personnel records, but the sheriff’s office sent our request to the attorney general’s office for its opinion.