Woman Says Police Used Excessive Force at Airport

Dec. 1, 2004 — -- She was dragged out of her car at an airport, slammed to the ground and handcuffed by a burly police officer in full view of a security camera, but Diana Dietrich-Barnes says there was absolutely no need for the officer to use such excessive force.

Dietrich-Barnes, 43, was at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Nov. 2, waiting to pick up her mother. After circling the airport several times she stopped to check her mother's itinerary. A few moments later, Officer Terence Alexander approached her sport utility vehicle and told her to move on.

In the airport surveillance video, her car then appears to briefly back up. Then a police officer opens her car door, yanks her out and throws her to the ground, where she is handcuffed. No fewer than seven police officers surround her.

Recounting the scene on "Good Morning America" Monday, Dietrich-Barnes said she was shocked when she saw the excessive use of force in the video.

"The whole time I'm laying on the ground, I'm upset, I'm yelling and screaming," she said. "I didn't want my mother to see me like that. It would have been a horrible experience for her to come out and see her daughter laying face down on the concrete with a police officer on top of her."

A lawyer for Alexander disputes Dietrich-Barnes' charge that excessive force was used.

"Officer Alexander did not do anything inappropriate, he remained calm throughout the procedure and Ms. Barnes was belligerent, she refused arrest," said Lecora Bowen, Alexander's attorney.

On Monday, Dietrich-Barnes had her day in court. Clayton Circuit District Attorney Bob Keller and the judge agreed to drop the charges after viewing the surveillance video. "A failure to obey a command that was given like that is not one that I felt like rose to felony criminal violation proportions," said Keller.