You can hardly blame Jean Pierre. When you're 62 and you own a Dodge Challenger, you're going to wind up speeding.
So when Pierre got pulled over on I-295 on June 4 for going more than double the speed limit -- 110 m.p.h. in a 50-m.p.h. zone -- he knew he was in trouble. He wouldn't argue against what he had coming.
What he didn't realize was that his burst of acceleration would in fact cost him dearly.
The Washington Post's Mary Pat Flaherty reports that Pierre was subjected to 15 hours in Metropolitan Police Department custody after he was stopped by Metropolitan Police Department assistant chief Rodney Parks. During that time, the Fort Washington resident received no food and little water. Worse still, he had no access to the heart, blood pressure and other medication that he takes daily. His misery was exacerbated by the heat: For much of the afternoon, it was 89 degrees.
Pierre even passed out in a police van at one point, when he was being moved from a local police station in Anacostia to a processing station downtown. He was taken to Georgetown University Hospital, and his emergency room bills confirm his visit. Pierre said that he recalls riding in the van wearing plastic handcuffs in front of him but woke up in the hospital wearing metal handcuffs, hooked to a gurney.
Following tests at the hospital, police took Pierre to central booking. There, he was placed in a cell for disabled suspects. (He uses a cane.) He was finally released -- at 5:15 a.m. on June 5, after his 2:30 p.m. June 4 arrest.
Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy Lanier told NBC that she could not comment before reviewing the incident.
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Pierre, a three-tour Vietnam veteran -- he worked as a military investigator for the Army and was awarded a Purple Heart -- saved a D.C. police officer from a burning car wreck in 2003. Former police chief Charles Ramsay gave him a citizen's award.
