[link to www.cleveland.com]

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The lawyer for a Lakewood woman who said she was roughed up by an RTA transit officer said her experience appears to track with recent findings that Cleveland police used excessive force against suspects without justifiable cause.

Jessica Ferrato, 39, said she was physically assaulted by an RTA officer after getting off a rapid train Sunday evening as she returned home from the Cleveland International Film Festival.

Ferrato said she was knocked to the ground and her face was shoved into the dirt as the RTA officer, with a knee pressed into her back, wrestled handcuffs on her. Ferrato said her pants and underwear were somehow pulled down during the struggle, exposing her until another officer pulled her pants up and put her in the back of a police cruiser.