{"id":41879,"date":"2026-08-12T23:41:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T18:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=41879"},"modified":"2026-08-12T23:41:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T18:41:33","slug":"arkansas-trooper-threw-teen-down-and-punched-her-in-the-face-during-traffic-stop-lawsuit-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=41879","title":{"rendered":"Arkansas trooper threw teen down and punched her in the face during traffic stop, lawsuit says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit_1500w\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260812-arkansas-state-trooper-vl-1158a-9296a3.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"anchor-02ec4c\" class=\"body-graf\">An 18-year-old Black woman filed a lawsuit this week against an Arkansas State Police trooper she said \u201cslammed her to the ground and struck her in the face\u201d during a traffic stop.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-ee0f6b\" class=\"body-graf\">Alisa Hackett filed a federal lawsuit Monday against trooper Moisses Arellano over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/video\/newly-released-video-arkansas-state-trooper-punching-black-woman-traffic-stop\/?intcid=CNM-00-10abd1h\" target=\"_blank\">an incident that took place on Aug. 1<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-ab5c29\" class=\"body-graf\">According to the lawsuit, Hackett posed no threat to anyone and was unarmed. She was suspected of, at most, a minor traffic offense when she was stopped in Mississippi County, Arkansas, by Arellano, the suit said.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-6ba573\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cArellano struck her because she talked back to him \u2014 because she questioned him, objected to what he was doing, and declined to be silent while he did it,\u201d the lawsuit said. \u201cA closed-fist blow to the face of an unarmed eighteen-year-old girl is not a permissible answer to speech, and it is not a permissible answer to a detainee who pulls her arm away during handcuffing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-92f6e6\" class=\"body-graf\">The Arkansas State Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment. NBC News was not able to reach Arellano for comment.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-742575\" class=\"body-graf\">According to the lawsuit, the trooper\u2019s use-of-force report indicated that he struck Hackett\u2019s face. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-80f45d\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cAfter giving multiple commands for her to roll over without compliance, I delivered one closed-fist strike to the left side of her face in an attempt to gain compliance,\u201d Arellano wrote in the incident report, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/arkansas-trooper-punch-traffic-stop-investigation\/\" target=\"_blank\">according to CBS News<\/a>. \u201cAfter the strike, she continued resisting by pulling her wrists away and refusing to roll over.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-95bf7a\" class=\"body-graf\">Attorney Benjamin Crump is representing Hackett and calling for a use-of-force investigation. Crump said Hackett was booked at 12:51 a.m. on Aug. 2 in Mississippi County jail on five charges: improper display of tags, a restriction on vehicle lamps, no seatbelt, purchase or possession of alcohol by a minor, and refusal to submit to arrest. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-e3eca7\" class=\"body-graf\">The lawsuit accuses Arellano of then starting a \u201ccriminal process in motion against Ms. Hackett in order to shield himself from discipline and civil liability, to lend after-the-fact color to his use of force, and to deter Ms. Hackett from complaining about what he had done to her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-db7c2b\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cArkansas State Police have to explain to the public how that is a reasonable response to a teenager at a traffic stop,\u201d Crump said in a statement. \u201cIf you cannot handle a teenage girl without taking her to the ground, cursing at her, and punching her in the face, you should not be wearing a badge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-8aa649\" class=\"body-graf\">The trooper\u2019s use-of-force report said he stopped Hacket when she was driving 71 mph in a 60 mph zone, <a href=\"https:\/\/neareport.com\/2026\/08\/10\/ben-crump-retained-by-alisa-hackett-hours-after-federal-lawsuit-filed\/\" target=\"_blank\">according to local outlet NEA Report.<\/a> Hackett told the trooper that her car\u2019s window was broken and she was trying to get home, the outlet said, citing the trooper\u2019s report.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-01d8d6\" class=\"endmark body-graf\">Arellano wrote that Hackett became argumentative, threw a clipboard at him and resisted when he attempted to put handcuffs on her, according to NEA Report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An 18-year-old Black woman filed a lawsuit this week against an Arkansas State Police trooper she said \u201cslammed her to the ground and struck her in the face\u201d during a traffic stop. Alisa Hackett filed a federal lawsuit Monday against trooper Moisses Arellano over an incident that took place on Aug. 1. According to the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_nbcnews-fp-1200-630,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260812-arkansas-state-trooper-vl-1158a-9296a3.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}