Occupy Wall Street: First Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit Filed Against NYPD

Two Occupy Wall Street protesters filed the first federal civil rights lawsuit brought against the NYPD in connection with the OWS movement on Monday, claiming they were falsely arrested and subjected to excessive force last month during a protest at a Manhattan bank.

Heather Carpenter, a 23-year-old Port Jefferson Station nursing student, and her fiancé Julio Jose Jimenez-Artunduaga, a 23-year-old Colombian immigrant who works in bar-tending and construction, were arrested Oct. 15 in front of a Greenwich Village Citibank branch.

The arrest, which was captured on video and posted to YouTube, shows the couple standing in front of the Citibank branch at 555 Laguardia Place, where protesters were still inside after Carpenter had closed their accounts with the bank.