NAACP opens investigation into charges against police Family claims woman was mistreated at HQ following July 25 arrest

Staff Writer

By dick metzgar

NAACP opens investigation into charges against police
Family claims woman
was mistreated at HQ
following July 25 arrest

FREEHOLD — The Freehold chapter of the NAACP is investigating allegations concerning police actions following a July 25 incident in which two borough sisters were charged with assaulting police officers.

The sisters and their grandmother, Norma Randolph, a civil rights activist in the borough, claim that Ziyadah Perry, 24, and Zurinah Perry, 21, not only were victims of police brutality during their arrest, but were excessively mistreated afterward while being processed at police headquarters.

Ziyadah Perry claimed her shirt was torn off during the scuffle with police officers and forced to walk topless before male police officers even after being taken to headquarters.

A civil rights group, including Randolph and Sgt. De Lacey D. Davis, an East Orange police officer and the leader of Black Cops Against Police Brutality (B-CAP), appeared at a Borough Council meeting on Aug. 6 to demand that justice be done and action be taken against the officers involved in the matter.

"I’ve gotten very involved with this matter," said Joseph Taylor, president of the Greater Freehold Branch of the NAACP. "Quite frankly, I am very disturbed about the actions of the Freehold Borough Police Department, especially what went on at headquarters after the arrests" of the Perry sisters.

Randolph said Davis has been in contact with the president of the New Jersey State Board of the NAACP. She said state-level NAACP officials are looking into the allegations.

Taylor said he is in the process of arranging a meeting with Mayor Michael Wilson, Police Chief Michael Beierschmitt and a representative from the Monmouth County Human Relations Commission.

Freehold Borough Police Capt. Michael DiAiso said he is conducting an investigation into what took place before, during and after the incident.

According to the official police report, the assault charges lodged against the Perry sisters were the result of an incident that took place at 1 a.m. July 25 when police were responding to at least one noise complaint in the area of Ford Avenue and Lloyd Street.

"The two girls were told to quiet down, and at first they complied, but then they started up again," DiAiso was quoted as saying in a story that appeared in the Aug. 1 News Transcript. "After they were charged with disorderly conduct, they physically confronted the police officers."

Randolph, the girls’ grandmother, said she disputed these allegations.

"The police used excessive force," Randolph alleged. "These girls were not burglars or drug dealers. They have friends in that area. They have friends all over town. As far as the noise complaints, there are always noise complaints in that area."

Borough police charged both women with aggravated assault on police officers, resisting arrest and spraying bodily fluids on police officers.

Freehold Township police officers were called to the scene to help borough police officers deal with the disturbance. According to a Freehold Township police log, Ziyadah Perry assaulted township officers. These officers went to borough police headquarters and signed complaints against Perry, charging her with aggravated assault on a police officer.

All of the charges lodged against the sisters will be challenged, Randolph said.

What allegedly took place at police headquarters while the Perry sisters were being processed was especially offensive to NAACP officials and to Randolph, who said she arrived at police headquarters at about 2 a.m. July 25, an hour after the arrests were made.

"One of my granddaughters was naked from the waist up," Randolph said. "She was lying on a wooden bench in handcuffs facing the wall. Her skirt was pulled up and her buttocks were exposed."

Taylor said he is most concerned with the treatment the women received at police headquarters.

"We are not questioning the arrest, but we are concerned with the allegations of mistreatment at the police station after the arrest," Taylor said. "I believe the one girl’s story that she was paraded before male police officers in the nude. I find that appalling. We want the procedures for police behavior in these situations changed, and we feel something must be done to the police officers involved."

Ziyadah Perry, who initiated the confrontation with police officers, according to DiAiso, was placed in the Monmouth County jail, Freehold Township, in default of $34,500 bail at the time of her arrest, while her sister, Zurinah, was placed in jail in default of $17,500 bail. The women have since been released, pending court action.

The Perrys’ brother, Zaidis Perry, 19, was charged with multiple counts of aggravated assault on police officers during a fracas at a party at the Knights of Columbus Hall, East Main Street, April 9.

Police said five borough officers were injured in the process of subduing Perry, who, they said, was throwing furniture around while trying to find his coat.

He was also charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest with force, underage drinking and obstruction of the administration of the law. He was placed in the county jail in default of $100,000 bail and later released pending court action.

Perry also filed charges of police brutality as a result of that incident.

Reportedly, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office is investigating both incidents involving the Perry siblings.