A Texas mom claims police handcuffed her and held her down on a pile of fire ants as the pests bit her all over her face, according to a new lawsuit.
Taylor Rogers claims officers with the Santa Fe ISD Police Department twisted her leg, hog-tied her, and buried her face over a colony of fire ants when they cuffed her over a traffic violation in 2021, KHOU 11 reports.
“Taylor Rogers was stopped by Santa Fe police for no reason, thrown on the ground right into a bed of fire ants in the middle of the day and then held there while screaming,” civil rights attorney Randall Kallinen said at a news conference on Saturday.
Dramatic police bodycam footage from the arrest shows an officer holding Rogers down on the grass after she allegedly fled from police trying to stop her over an illegal turn in a school parking lot.
“This is cutting my circulation off and ants are on my face,” Rogers could be heard saying before she started shouting in pain.
“Ants are getting on my face, please,” she howled. “How can y’all do this? Ants are on my face! Please let go!”
Rogers alleges that she could not swat the insects away because she was handcuffed and claims police did not help remove the ants.
Images of the aftermath shows countless fire ant bite marks across Rogers’ face, neck, chest and shoulders, to what her attorney claimed was tantamount to “torture.”
Rogers added that the incident unfolded right in front of her 9-year-old son, who sat in the backseat of her car.
Santa Fe ISD Police Chief Ruben Espinoza, one of the two officers named in the lawsuit, disputed Rogers’ claims, saying images from the arrest showed no signs of fire ants present on the grass.
Espinoza added that the bodycam video shared by Rogers’ attorney was misleading and cut out the part where the officers helped lift the woman off the ground after she agreed to calm down.
He told the local outlet that Rogers was treated with “respect and dignity” throughout the arrest.
Following her arrest, Rogers pleaded guilty with charges associated with fleeing from police, but she maintains that she drove away from Espinoza after he allegedly banged on her car and pointed a gun at her, startling her and causing her to panic.
Espinoza, however, described Rogers as irate and accused her of knowingly ignoring his orders and fleeing from police.
Sante Fe Police did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for additional comment.
