Ben Crump to represent woman detained by Jacksonville police

Attorney Ben Crump and Harry Daniels announced on Sunday that he has been retained to represent a Jacksonville woman who was arrested after being accused of biting and punching an officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

The woman, Erika McGriff, 39, was arrested on Tuesday, Oct. 7, after illegally parking her car at an intersection near IDEA charter school on Bassett Rd., according to JSO during a press conference.

Crump released the following statement:

This disturbing video shows yet another example of unnecessary and excessive force used against a Black woman during what should have been a routine encounter. No mother should be brutalized in front of her child and community for something as minor as a parking issue. We will fight to hold the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office accountable for this inexcusable aggression just like we are fighting to hold them accountable for the excessive force we saw in the video that was inflicted upon Black college student, William McNeil Jr.

Within the press release, Crump comments on the video and audio footage that was shown, which includes McGruff telling officers, “I can’t breathe,” and asking for help. Crump says that McGriff “posed no deadly threat.”

Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters says that when the officer at the scene had attempted to talk to McGriff, she “escalated the verbal conversation to physical violence.”

McGriff was arrested on charges of battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer with violence and operating a motor vehicle while having a revoked driver’s license, all third-degree felonies and each punishable by up to five years in prison.