Eryn Bonner, the 21-year-old Arizona State student whose violent arrest by Tempe police went viral this month, says the city only charged her because she accused the arresting officer of groping her.
Her attorney Benjamin Taylor told TMZ the charges, filed two months after the July 19 arrest, amount to “vindictive and political prosecution designed to protect their police department from liability after she reported being groped and assaulted by the cop that is seen on video.”
Bonner is facing two misdemeanors, disorderly conduct and interfering with police, after county prosecutors declined to pursue felony charges. She is due back in court November 4.
The Tempe Officers’ Association is pushing back hard. The union called the groping allegation “inflammatory” and accused Bonner of trying to dodge accountability for the arrest.
And one correction to how this story first ran: Bonner was not actually an ASU cheerleader. The school told TMZ she was part of the Stunt Devils, a student club separate from the school’s official athletics program, and her time with the team ended before the arrest.
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