Woman denies interfering with police officers

A North Springfield woman is facing a felony charge for allegedly interfering with police officers.


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ERIC FRANCIS PHOTO Nina Clark, 35, of North Springfield pleaded innocent to a felony count of impeding a police officer and four other related charges after officers said she interfered with their efforts to restrain a suicidal teenager during a disturbance involving several people late Saturday evening. Published May 23, 2016 in the Rutland Herald Woman denies interfering with police officers By ERIC FRANCIS WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A North Springfield woman is facing a felony charge for allegedly interfering with police officers. Nina Clark, 35, of North Springfield, pleaded innocent Monday to the single felony count of impeding a police officer and to accompanying misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest, simple assault of a police officer, disorderly conduct and violating a court-ordered condition of pretrial release. In separate affidavits filed with the court, three Springfield police officers wrote that they were dispatched to the Lawrence Daniels residence in North Springfield shortly before midnight on May 14 after a caller reported a loud argument taking place. Officer Steven Neily wrote that a 19-year-old girl was “sitting on the floor with a framed photograph clutched to her chest, rocking back-and-forth, crying hysterically.” Neily said that the teen was upset because she had “just found out that her dad was in jail for molesting her younger sister.” Neily wrote that he heard glass break behind him. He entered the living room to find the teenager had broken the photo frame and was “on her knees with a sharp, jagged piece of glass in her left hand moving it in a stabbing motion toward her right wrist.” Neily said he grabbed the distraught girl’s left wrist and felt the shard of glass break against his bulletproof vest as he rolled her onto the floor and put her into handcuffs for her own safety. As that was happening, Neily wrote, “Clark kicked the door behind me, causing a section of the door to fly out.” As she struggled to get through the locked door, Neily said Clark was “red faced and had a clenched jaw and both her fists were clenched.” Another officer, Logan DeFelice, then grabbed Clark and shoved her onto a bed in order to handcuff her but she managed to “slip” one of the cuffs at which point Neily wrote that he heard “loud footsteps and then a crash in the kitchen area.” Officer Ryan Prince wrote in his affidavit “heard Nina yelling and I turned around to see Nina with one hand in a pair of handcuffs … charging towards me.” “At this point Officer DeFelice (grabbed) Nina from behind and brought her to the ground,” Prince recalled. “I then secured Nina’s right wrist in a wrist lock (and) Nina kicked me in my right shin causing me slight pain.” The officers had walked Clark outside and were placing her in the back of a cruiser when she began complaining of a “broken knee” and “demanding medical attention” so she was driven the emergency room at Springfield Hospital where she “continued to be very loud and swear” and refused to take a breath test for alcohol, Officer Neily wrote. Prince wrote in his report that he’d removed Clark’s handcuffs so she could be x-rayed when she “began to escalate and started swearing and yelling. Nina stood up from her bed and began to charge at me once again. I grabbed her by her shoulders and placed her on her stomach on the bed and then I re-secured the handcuffs behind her back. Neily wrote that he’d heard Officer Prince yell and heard a crash. “I ran to the room and Officer Prince was holding Clark down on the hospital bed. I took control of Clark’s feet and she immediately calmed down,” he wrote. In addition to the new charge, Clark is also facing a misdemeanor count of domestic assault that she pleaded innocent to back in January. That charged stemmed from a fight in which Clark allegedly punched an intoxicated visitor at the residence whom Clark said was bothering a teenage girl there, although not the same girl who was involved in this weekend’s incident. http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20160523/NEWS02/160529816