FAMILY CLAIMS GIRL, 11, ROUGHED UP BY POLICE

The family of an 11-year-old West Side girl claims police pushed her
face to a sidewalk, handcuffed her and kicked her because they
mistakenly thought she was involved in a drug deal.

Plainclothes officers spotted Timia Williams talking to a man on the
street near her home in the 600 block of North Central Park Tuesday
and thought she was involved in a marijuana transaction, a police
source said.

She ran when the officers approached, fell on the sidewalk and was
handcuffed. Officers didn't find drugs and she was released, the
source said.

"Relatives came out and chastised her for hanging out," the source said.

Neighbor Angela Sims gave a starkly different account. She said she
was walking along North Central Park with laundry when she saw Timia
running. "They hollered for her to stop," Sims said.

Timia was pushed onto the sidewalk--cutting her face--and an officer
put a knee in her back and handcuffed her, said Sims, 31. Another
officer--tall, with brown hair and wearing glasses--kicked her in the
side, she said.

A third officer ordered Timia to stand up, Sims said.

"Timia said, `Why do you want me to get up? What are you going to do
with me?' " Sims said.

As the girl sobbed, officers picked her up by her arms, Sims said.
The officer who put his knee in her back unlocked the cuffs with a
pen, she said.

A fourth officer searched the grass in a vacant lot, Sims said, but
didn't recover any drugs.

Sims said the encounter was about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, but a police
source said the incident occurred about 6:30 p.m.

Police Supt. Terry Hillard said police thought the girl, whose
grandfather said she was an honor student, might have been carrying
or selling marijuana. "Was she roughed up? I don't know. That was the
allegation. We'll have to see what OPS comes up with," he said.

The Office of Professional Standards was investigating Wednesday
after Timia's family filed a complaint with the department. Civil
rights lawyer Standish Willis was consulting the family.

Timia, a sixth-grader at Laura S. Ward School, was treated at St.
Elizabeth Medical Center for minor injuries and released, her
grandfather, Larry Marshall, said.

Some neighbors were outraged Timia was suspected of involvement in drugs.

"I've never seen that girl affiliate with dope addicts," said Sam
Thomas of Blue Jay Foods, the corner store that Timia visited before
she was stopped.

Timia is large for an 11-year-old and the officers might have
misjudged her age, he said.

"That's a nice little girl . . . If she saw grown men running toward
her, she had a good, solid reason for running," he said.

Contributing: Fran Spielman