Woman claims fired state trooper used excessive force on her too

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- A former state trooper fired after a video of the beating of a Raleigh man went viral is now being accused of using excessive force against a Raleigh woman.

Kimberly Ingram claims trooper Michael Blake pulled her over in March and roughed her up.

Ingram said she exited I-540 on her way to her Brier Creek home and saw a trooper, but didn't realize he was trying to stop her.

She said when she turned off Lumley Road onto Rink Road another trooper pulled in front of her and blocked her path.

That's when Blake approached her car and told her to put her hands where he could see them.

But she said she was still trying to put the car in park and Blake got angry, opened her door, and pulled her to the pavement.

"I did not anticipate the takedown, and then I'm like what is really going on here?" So, at that point when he grabbed my arm, and put me face down the asphalt it really hit me when he jumped and sat on my back because it knocked the air out of me and it caused me to urinate on myself," she told ABC11.

She said she sat for nearly two hours handcuffed behind her back while Blake searched her car for drugs.

He even called in a drug dog.

Ingram said she could hear the dog's handler talking to Blake saying, "'She's clean. There's nothing there.'"

She said Blake found an air freshener in her car and questioned whether it was used to mask the smell of marijuana.

Ingram, a disabled Navy veteran, said she has never used drugs in her life.

And even after the search turned up nothing Blake refused to give up.

"He said, 'This just does not add up.' He said, 'Are you hiding something?'"

She said the next day, still in pain from being handcuffed and jumped on, she decided to call Blake's supervisor.

"I definitely didn't want this to happen to another individual," she said.

Ingram said she got through to Sergeant R. W. Goswick who told her had seen the video of her encounter and apologized for her treatment.

But she said he minimized Blake's actions.

Then, five days later, came the controversial arrest of Kyron Hinton.

Video of that arrest went viral and got Blake and another state trooper fired after they and a Wake County Sheriff's deputy were charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

Prosecutors said that on the other trooper's dash cam you can hear a supervisor at the scene telling Blake and the other trooper to file false reports.

"Y'all three just write a statement, send it to me and we'll put it in a folder. No use of force on our part," the voice can be heard saying on the dashcam audio.

Prosecutors claim that supervisor was Sgt. Goswick, who has now been put on administrative leave.

Ingram said after she saw the injuries to Hinton she felt like her complaint fell on deaf ears.

"It kind of made me feel saddened in a sense because it did happen to another individual," she said.

According to her lawsuit, the Highway Patrol was well aware of Blake's propensity for violence against citizens.

The suit claimed Blake used excessive force against another man in 2016 and was even suspended by the patrol in 2015 for use of excessive force and misconduct.

ABC11 reached out to Blake's attorney for comment but have not heard back.