Woman sentenced for pinching police officer

A Springfield woman who police said threw a fit and repeatedly pinched an officer earlier this year during the opening moments of a drug raid upon a Valley Street residence will spend a week on the Department of Corrections’ work crew as a result.

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Woman sentenced for pinching police officer By ERIC FRANCIS CORRESPONDENT | December 12,2016 WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A Springfield woman who police said threw a fit and repeatedly pinched an officer earlier this year during the opening moments of a drug raid upon a Valley Street residence will spend a week on the Department of Corrections’ work crew as a result. Maria Perez, 26, of Springfield pled guilty on Thursday afternoon to a single misdemeanor count of simple assault on a police officer in connection with the events of March 21 at the corner of Main and Valley Streets when seven Springfield officers showed up to arrest Perez’s step-father, Eddie Cruz, and execute a search warrant at his residence. Springfield Police Lt. Mark Fountain wrote in an affidavit filed with the court that officers were concerned about unconfirmed reports of weapons and the large number of family members, friends, and alleged drug purchasers who had been frequenting the residence. Fountain said the police team wanted to make sure that anyone found there was swiftly “restrained, until the house was secured and made safe for the officers present.” Fountain said that after police parked around the corner and began rapidly walking toward the two story residence that evening the first detective to round the corner yelled back that there were several people outside on the front porch. As the police rushed up the stairs, Fountain wrote, the detectives were saying “On the ground! Get on the ground! Search Warrant! Police!…(and) knocking on the front door announcing ‘Springfield Police!’.” “I immediately reached the top of the porch and turned to my left where I saw a female, later identified as Maria Perez, on her stomach but attempting to get up,” Lt. Fountain wrote. “I began shouting at her to ‘Get on the ground! Get on the ground!’ and I moved to a handcuffing position…so I went behind her and placed on knee on the porch floor in between her legs.” Fountain wrote that while this was going on Springfield Police Chief Doug Johnston was standing right next to him yelling at two other adults trying to also get them to lie on the ground, which they were in the process of doing. “The scene was extremely chaotic at this time with a lot of yelling going on,” the lieutenant recalled. Fountain said he got one of Perez’s hands cuffed but she tucked the other under her body and “began yelling out loud”, accusing him repeatedly of molesting her and then “moving around and turning on her left side. All of the sudden I felt a sharp pain in my thigh, in the area of my hamstring. I yelled at her to stop pinching me, because I could feel her pinch my skin and it hurt…Perez then pinched me again, causing me pain,” Fountain wrote, explaining that he was eventually able to get the second handcuff onto her other wrist. “Ms. Perez continued to yell and scream the whole time that she was going to sue the (expletive) police because I fondled her,” Fountain wrote, adding that “Ms. Perez continued yelling and screaming and would not calm down…(she) was not walking on her own and activity resisted” being moved off the porch and placed into the back of a police cruiser,” where “she continued to yell and scream out of control (and) could be heard even though the cruiser doors were closed.” As a result of the March raid on his house, Perez’s step-father Eddie Cruz, 54, ended up pleading guilty in July to felony counts of selling and possessing heroin for which he is currently serving a 1-to-4 year sentence.