Irene D'Almeida

The UA professor who said she was wrongfully detained and brutalized by police for a crime she didn't commit plans to sue UAPD.

Irene D'Almeida, a professor of French and Italian, said University of Arizona Police Department officer Robb Fountain tried to handcuff her after she refused to respond to questions regarding her involvement in a hit-and-run accident. Fountain told her that they could resolve the situation in her office, or they could go down to the station and "resolve it the hard way," reports stated.

"The police used Gestapo tactics to try and get a confession out of her," said William Risner, D'Almeida's attorney. "You don't do those kind of things to anybody, even if they were guilty."

D'Almeida, called the incident "psychologically damaging."

"In my (African) culture only the worst criminals are handcuffed," she said. "It's amazing to me that I have to come to the U.S. to experience it."

UAPD completed an internal investigation into Fountain's actions but Commander Kevin Haywood would not comment on it, calling it "a personnel issue."

However, a letter from Marrie-Pierre Le Hir, the French and Italian department head, to Charles Tatum, Dean of the Humanities College, stated that UAPD Detective Rolf Averill told her that Officer Fountain was a young, inexperienced officer who used poor judgment.

The investigation into the actual hit-and-run, completed by UAPD Feb. 3, concluded that there was insufficient evidence to show that D'Almeida was the person who hit the victim.

When UA police offered to give Risner the results of the internal investigation if he promised not to reveal that information to anyone else, he declined the offer, Risner said.

On Oct. 18, when the hit-and-run occurred, the victim stated that the car had struck him and turned into the Cherry Parking Garage. Anyone who enters this garage must use a security card, which is recorded on a daily activity report. The report for Oct.18 indicates that D'Almeida did not enter the garage at any point on that day.

Risner called the UAPD investigation process "astonishingly laughable," something out of "Keystone Cops."

"It appears that the police were working double time to come up with something," Risner said.

The victim was unable to get the license plate of the vehicle that struck him the day that the incident occurred, reports stated. It was four days later, when he said he saw what he thought was the suspected vehicle again, that he was able to get the license number, reports stated.

The victim told police that the woman who struck him had a nice suit on and that her hair was "all done up." But D'Almeida's hair was only an inch long at the time, Risner said. But still, on Oct. 30 Fountain went to D'Almeida's office on the fifth floor of the Modern Languages building to follow up on the hit-and-run that occurred 12 days before.

D'Almeida said Fountain asked her, "How does it feel to hit someone and run?" before throwing her to the floor. During the ensuing melee her glasses broke and her clothes were ripped, she said.

D'Almeida and Risner, as well as many members of the academic community across the country are calling for a public apology. Neither the university nor the police department have given one to this point, they said.

"I have heard nothing from anybody, as if this was just going to vanish," D'Almeida said. "Well, that is not going to happen. I used to come here in the evenings and do work, but I don't do that anymore. I don't think I ever will because I don't feel safe."