Pittsburgh Tribune Review
MT. LEBANON, Pa. — A woman with epilepsy claims in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed Thursday that police and paramedics used unnecessary force and filed false charges against her when they responded to a 911 call of her suffering a seizure in a Mt. Lebanon restaurant.
Jessica Yochum, 23, stated in the lawsuit that she had a grand mal seizure Feb. 22 while working at Houlihan’s Restaurant. Instead of letting her seizure run its course, Gregory Petro and Richard Weisner of Medical Rescue Team South and police Officer Jeffrey Frolo forcibly restrained her, the lawsuit said.
That caused her to react violently, and she bit Weisner on the hand during the struggle, the lawsuit said. Frolo charged her with aggravated assault and drug possession, but a district judge dismissed the charges, the lawsuit said.
Spokesmen for Medical Rescue Team South and Mt. Lebanon declined comment.
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