Portland Police officers attacked a mother at a wedding, beating and stripping her nude to her waist in front of her family, the mother claims in a lawsuit claiming battery and police brutality filed by Kafoury & McDougal.

Jessica Stradley was at a wedding with her husband and six-year-old daughter when another attendee falsely accused her of stealing her wallet. Stradley tried to explain the mistake, but before she could, half a dozen drunken off-duty cops attacked her. The Portland Police officers slammed her into a lighting pole, where she gashed her head, grabbed her arms and shook her and shoved her to the ground before they ripped her strapless dress down to her waist, exposing her breasts.

One officer held Stradley down by the throat, squeezing her windpipe and saying, “I’m going to fucking kill you.”

Stradley’s little girl watched the whole thing, at one point running onto the dance floor to tell the crowd that her mother was being attacked.

Stradley’s husband struggled to get her out of the wedding venue, with their daughter in tow. Stradley told the men who had attacked her that she planned to call the police, to which one replied, “Go ahead and call the fucking police. We are the police.”

Another threatened to lie to the police and tell them that Stradley had punched his wife in the face.

None of the cops would give Stradley their names.

Kafoury & McDougal believes that Portland police officers are always on duty. After all, they can stop a suspected criminal at any time, regardless of whether they are on the clock. Therefore, they were working when they beat Stradley and humiliated her in front of her family and everyone at the wedding.

The attack on Stradley is part of a pattern of Portland police abusing their power and using excessive force, even on their own private time.

No Portland police officer has ever permanently lost their job for abusing a citizen. Some have initially lost their jobs, only to get them back through arbitration. Others were never fired in the first place.

But Kafoury & McDougal has successfully held police accountable. We settled two cases where off duty police attacked citizens by pointing their guns at them. If you or someone you know has been abused at the hands of the police, whether they were on or off duty, call us so we can investigate your situation.

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Oregonian article, by Aimee Green