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An Ogden woman is suing a Utah Highway Patrol trooper, claiming the officer "violently" dragged her from her car during a traffic stop prompted by a faulty brake light.
But the UHP denies the allegation that excessive force was used, saying the trooper used "the least amount of force" to further his investigation into what initially appeared to be a case of driving under the influence of alcohol.
In the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, Kara Lynn Castaldo claims she was driving home from work about 1 a.m. on July 18, when Trooper Owen Horne pulled her over.
"Trooper Horne was basically waiting outside the bar where Castaldo worked, with the intent of arresting individuals who were driving under the influence of alcohol," the lawsuit states.
Horne pulled Castaldo over in a dark area near 2350 Adams Ave. Castaldo was afraid because the location was unlit and remote, and because the stop occurred a few days after a woman was pulled over in a Texas traffic stop and later died in jail, according to the lawsuit.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Castaldo's attorney, Robert Sykes, played dashboard camera video that showed Horne ask the woman to roll down her window, but she refuses.
"You need to hop out of the car," Horne tells the driver. "I'm sorry, sir," Castaldo replies, "I don't feel safe."
The trooper orders her again to get out of the car, and when she doesn't, he opens her truck door, the video shows. This happens about 30 seconds after Horne made initial contact with the driver.
In the video, Castaldo repeatedly offers her driver's license and registration, and asks why she was pulled over. When Horne tells her it is because her brake light is out, she asks why she has to get out of her car for an equipment violation.
"Your brake lights are out and I'd like to talk about that outside," the trooper tells her. "... Get out now or you are going to jail."
The video then shows Horne pulling the woman from her truck, as she yells, "This is not acceptable. Please do not pull me out of my car, Sir!"
Castaldo was then put in handcuffs, and taken to jail. She said Wednesday that she stayed there through the night until she figured out how to post bail.
"I definitely didn't feel as though I could trust the officer at the time," she said Wednesday. "It seemed like a very unreasonable demand [to get out of the car], having not known why the demand was even being made. That's what made me suspicious of the request in general."
Castaldo says she suffered cuts and bruises and aggravated a shoulder injury during the episode.
The lawsuit claims Horne violated Castaldo's rights by using excessive force and by illegally trying to get her exit her car to expand the traffic stop into a DUI investigation.
Sykes said Wednesday that Castaldo's lawsuit — which asks for a monetary award of at least $100,000 — was filed to show that citizen's rights under the U.S. Constitution matter.
"The Fourth Amendment matters," he said. "Your right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures matter in this society. You shouldn't be treated this way. He can not legally expand that traffic stop into a DUI investigation without reasonable suspicion and you have to be able to articulate that suspicion. You can't do it on a hunch."
UHP Sgt. Todd Royce said Wednesday that Horne "was just trying to do his job to the best of his ability" after smelling alcohol on the woman. Castaldo, who works at a craft beer bar, said she had not been drinking alcohol that night, but had taken a sip of a coworker's beer just before leaving the Grant Avenue establishment.
Royce said that when she refused to exit the car and only "slightly" rolled down her window, Horne could not simply let her "go down the road" without conducting sobriety tests. As it turned out, Castaldo was not impaired and she was never charged with DUI.
Royce said Horne's dash cam video shows that the trooper was calm during the interaction. But when the trooper opened the car door and pulled on Castaldo, she grabbed the steering wheel, causing him to pull harder.
Royce noted that UHP troopers stop about 250,000 motorists every year, "and the vast majority [of stops] go fine."
"But when [the driver] only rolls down the window slightly, that leaves ... the feeling that person is hiding something," Royce added. "That's why we've got to further investigate."
Castaldo was charged in Ogden City's justice court with class B misdemeanor interference with an arresting officer, but that count was later dismissed as part of a deal in which she pleaded guilty to the brake light violation, an infraction, for which she was fined $40.
Twitter: @jm_miller