An Orange Park mother is calling for a better system after her traffic stop last Friday ended with a corrections officer facing charges.
Kirenda Welch, 36, described being punched repeatedly and slammed into a concrete wall while in custody at the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
JSO arrested and fired Officer Catherine Thompson on Thursday for misdemeanor battery against Welch. Thompson also faces a falsifying official documents charge for trying to cover up the attack that happened in a room with no surveillance cameras.
Welch spent eight hours in police custody and said she had sharp words for officers but never resisted.
"I told [Thompson] 'If you strip that [badge and uniform] away you're not sh--, you probably got bullied in high school,'" Welch said. "And that must have been what infuriated her because she [took me] back into the holding cell.'"
JSO Undersheriff Pat Ivey said Welch was put in "four-point restraints" with cuffs on her hands and feet. Thompson said she wrote a report after the fact that was not truthful about the facts of the incident.
Photos from Welch show scratches and marks on her wrists and ankles and watery eyes. She said during the altercation, she instinctively thought to protect her unborn child.
"I just kept thinking, I'm going to lose my baby over a suspended license," Welch said.
Traffic Stop on Conant Avenue
Welch said she had been leaving basketball practice with her two young kids when one child got out of their seat restraint--she made an illegal U-turn to get to a gas station parking lot. The officer followed her onto the lot.
"He jumped out of the car with his gun drawn, I put my hands up and told my son to show him his hands," Welch said. "I had my hands outside the window [asking] 'Please don't shoot sir' and I told my son everything is going to be alright."
She said she did not know her driver's license had been suspended. The mark on her file made imprisonment an option.
"[The officer that stopped me] said 'I'm taking you to jail, I've already decided that,'" Welch said. "So I said 'Ok, I don't have to be respectful to you' and a few other choice words."
She believes the suspended license stemmed from an unpaid toll ticket.
Undersheriff Ivey said officers will usually write the citation and send the driver on their way with a reminder to appear in court.
"But there are several times when individuals have multiple DUIs or they are habitual traffic offenders," Ivey said. "I'm not saying that's the case with this individual."
Duval County court records online under Welch's name do not show an outstanding citation from before the suspension; there's one other traffic citation from February before the June 29 stop and no DUIs.
Welch believes she may have unknowingly run through an automated toll while traveling in South Florida for work. She said the bill would have gone unpaid because her registration address is not updated.
Meanwhile, in Jacksonville, Welch bonded out of jail for $385 the following day. She wants tougher charges for the corrections officer and is thankful other officers reported what happened.
"I prayed that God would touch their heart to tell the truth, because if not, [Thompson] would have gotten away with it."