Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Woman Wearing a Muu-Muu Claims City Worker Beat Her Over Dog Poop

By Meredith Hoffman | March 18, 2013 7:02am | Updated on March 18, 2013 7:20am
 Ruth Cunningham-Morris' dog Mischief passed away this January. Cunningham-Morris was walking Mischief when a DOT attacked her, a lawsuit alleges.
Ruth Cunningham-Morris' dog Mischief passed away this January. Cunningham-Morris was walking Mischief when a DOT attacked her, a lawsuit alleges.
View Full Caption
Ruth Cunningham-Morris

WILLIAMSBURG — A 58-year-old woman wearing a muu-muu and walking her dog Mischief on the neighborhood's waterfront claims she was attacked by a city worker when her pooch pooped on Kent Avenue, a new lawsuit claims.

Ruth Cunningham-Morris, 58, said she was "verbally and physically assaulted" by a Department of Transportation employee — identified in the suit as Ricardo Rosa — who "continued to punch, choke, strangle, assault, batter, beat and terrorize" her and "tore off her clothes", according to the suit filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court last month.

Cunninghan-Morris was so angered by the attack that she ended up throwing a bag of her dog's poop at Rosa.

 Ruth Cunningham-Morris said she was attacked and then arrested on Kent Avenue while walking her dog Mischief.
Ruth Cunningham-Morris said she was attacked and then arrested on Kent Avenue while walking her dog Mischief.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Meredith Hoffman

"She was an elderly woman in a muu-muu going to the trash can to get a bag for her dog," her lawyer Robert Digiani Jr. said.

Cunningham-Morris said she was out on a "routine walk" with her 15-year-old pitbull-mix Mischief about 8:30 a.m. last April, but she had forgotten to bring out a trash bag to clean up the mess. 

"Usually I bring bags everywhere — I still carry them in my pocket, even though she died," said Cunningham-Morris of Mischief, who passed away in January. "I was walking to the can, but I walk slowly," said Cunningham-Morris, who uses a cane. 

The DOT worker, according to her lawyer, saw her leaving poop on the street and he started yelling and berating her.

Even after she cleaned up the dog mess, the employee Ricardo Rosa continued to yell, so "the devil got in me and I went and chucked the bag at his truck," she said.

Cunningham-Morris claims Rosa beat her and caused "severe and visible injuries." She said police arrived on the scene and arrested her, refusing to get her medical attention.

The officers took her to Williamsburg's 94th Precinct, where they "chained her by her hands and feet to a chair mere feet away from Mr. Rosa" for 6 hours, the suit says. 

And even though an emergency medical services vehicle followed Cunningham-Morris to the precinct, cops continued to stop her from seeing a paramedic, she said.

She claims several lacerations on her face did not heal properly and left her with scars, not to mention emotional trauma, the suit says.

"It's painful, I still have headaches and a scar on my lip," said Cunningham-Morris. "I'm still in therapy since April."

"I've gotten no justice," she said. "I just want to be peaceful."

A spokeswoman from the city's law department declined to comment since the case is still open.

Cunningham-Morris said that the DOT worker should consider himself lucky. "Thank God the dog was old because if she'd been younger he wouldn't be here to tell about it — she would have torn his tail up," she said.

"But she was so old, she was at the end of her rope."