Charges dropped against woman brutalized by cops

Cassidy Rice with her mother Loree McCormick-Rice.

On Nov. 27, a motions hearing was held for Loree McCormick-Rice, the 51-year-old disabled woman who was beaten, along with her 12-year-old daughter Cassidy Rice, by an Aurora, Colo., police officer moonlighting in a King Soopers grocery store parking lot. Pictures of the bruises sustained by the mother and daughter were submitted as evidence.

The court room was packed with family, friends and supporters. There was only room to stand, as nearly 40 people sat in the pews and nearly half a dozen more stood. The audience in the court was visibly upset and some cried along with McCormick-Rice, while others gasped as she bravely recalled the night in a nearly hour-long testimony and the showing of the videotaped attack.

Her lawyer, David Lane, moved for a motion to dismiss. No one expected that the city would agree. However, after asking only a few questions the city moved to drop all charges against McCormick-Rice and Cassidy Rice. The audience applauded the decision, and the family hugged and thanked everyone present.

“This is only the beginning,” McCormick-Rice stated. She remarked that she and the family are prepared to continue until Sgt. Charles DeShazer, the cop who brutalized her and her daughter, and the King Soopers security guards are fired from their jobs.