4 women sue San Jose police for force

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Four women say in a lawsuit that San Jose, Calif., police used excessive force against them in 2006 after mistaking them for Mardi Gras revelers.

The women, all San Jose University college students at the time, say in court documents that police hit them with batons, pepper-sprayed them, handcuffed and arrested them and made a racial slur, even though they had not been drinking and weren't participating in a nearby celebration, The San Jose Mercury-News reported Monday.

The newspaper said video of an officer striking one of the women in the back of the legs with a baton was shown on KPIX-TV, San Francisco. San Jose police officials wouldn't discuss the incident except to say that one of the excessive force complaints filed by the women had been "sustained" -- a rare admission of wrongdoing by police authorities, the Mercury-News said.

One of the plaintiffs, Natasha Burton, said officers accused her and her companions of "coming from Oakland," which she took as a racial remark.

In fact, the newspaper said, Burton is the daughter of a San Diego police officer who headed a youth advisory group for that city's police department. She later graduated with a criminology degree.