Family Remains Upset Over Conduct Of Independence Police
http://www.kccall.com/article.cfm?articleid=1746
Eric L Wesson

CALL Staff Writer
Family members of a pregnant woman are still outraged over the treatment she received which stemmed from a call from department store security guards to the Independence, Mo., police department which allege that she was stealing cars in their parking lot.
The family of Mrs. Yvette Hayes, a wife, a local principal, mother of two and expecting mother, feel that she was racially profiled by J.C. Penny’s security and Independence police officers who may have exceeded their discretion when they aimed a weapon at her, forced her to lay on the ground on her stomach during a felony stop on the suspicion of her stealing cars in the parking lot of J.C. Penny.
As THE CALL reported earlier this summer, Mrs. Hayes had picked her two children up from vacation bible school and had followed her sister out to J.C. Penny in Independence. She had stayed in her vehicle because one of her children was sleep and the other one was drawing. This refutes the allegations made by J.C. Penny’s security that Ms. Hayes had gotten out of her vehicle and was looking at cars in the parking lot.
“I never got out of my car,” Mrs. Hayes said.
According to Marvin L. Lyman, the family spokesperson, there are several issues of concern the family has.
“The Independence Police department cannot supply videotape from the lead police car,” said Lyman.
“After reviewing the complete tapes of both responding police vehicles, we have ascertained that the lead car video was operational prior to and after the stoppage of Mrs. Hayes. After the officers released her they can be heard saying on the rear car’s audio that they have to cover their ass and that Mrs. hayes was obviously pregnant,” Lyman said.
Family members attempted to address their concerns with Independence City Council members but they arrived at the meeting too late.
In addition to the issues shared with THE CALL in a letter to Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon, Lyman highlights the following issues:
• Principal Yvette Hayes was singled out by J.C. Penney security as a car thief on Friday, July 13, while they searched for someone Black who was supposedly stealing cars in the area.
• J.C. Penney did not call 911 to engage police on the scene but called a satellite phone number for Police and followed Hayes onto Interstate 70.
• Independence Police made a u-turn after passing Hayes and followed her for approximately four miles after she left the J.C. Penney parking lot. ran her tags. and knew in advance the vehicle was properly registered and not stolen.
• Independence Police conducted a felony stop of Mrs. Hayes drawing their guns on Principal Hayes and forced her to lay face down on the side of Interstate 70, with traffic zooming by even though they could see that she was obviously pregnant.
•Independence police approached Mrs. Hayes’ 18 month and 4 year old children with guns in hand resulting in the traumatizing of Mrs. Hayes 4 year old daughter.
• Independence Police Chief and J.C. Penney has openly and repeatedly stated that their officers followed procedure even though they knew Mrs. Hayes was pregnant and put her unborn child at risk.
• The dash cam from the lead police car does not show video from approximately 8:10 p.m. to 12 a.m., otherwise the dash cam is fully functional.
• Independence Police can be heard saying they have to “cover their ass” on the complete video of the dash cam from the second police car.
• J.C. Penney, after more than one month has finally decided to cooperate and turn over parking lot surveillance tapes which will show that Hayes never left her vehicle and support that she was a victim of racial profiling.
The family is also asking for support from the black community in not shopping at that J.C. Penny

Lol this is what happenes in these country bumpkin town when they dont deal with real criminals. As a police officer i still cant find a reason why these officers had their guns out in what appears to be an unsubstantiated report of car theft. Granted i dont know how these police departments train their officers but cmon, give me a break. Sounds like these guys got excited and thought they finally had a reason to pull their guns out. They def deserve to lose a couple days vacation. I think its wrong and ****ed up, but at the same time these guys shouldnt lose their jobs or anything. Take a weeks vac from these guys and alls well that ends well.

If anything we should be looking at JC Penney. The officers may have overreacted but they were acting on biased info, which made their actions even worse. Def some racial profiling going on.