At 5-foot-6 and 140 pounds, Clarissa Sabedra wasn’t imposing. Yet, according to a lawsuit she filed in federal court, two Phoenix police officers treated her like a physical threat, pinning her on hot pavement that severely burned her legs to the point where she needed treatment in a hospital burn unit.
In the lawsuit, filed May 30, Sabedra sued the city of Phoenix and the two officers involved, claiming battery, negligence and violation of her Fourth Amendment rights.
Sabedra’s encounter with officers took place on June 1, 2024. According to a report by officer Nicholas Gastelum, the 27-year-old woman came home drunk around 1 p.m. and started arguing with family members. It’s unclear from the report who called the police. Both her mother, Mary Lou Hernandez, and brother, Anthony Hernandez, were listed as victims.
According to the officer, Anthony Hernandez said he took his sister out of the house and sat her down to “prevent her from assaulting anyone on the scene,” saying she ultimately did not harm anyone physically.
There are two accounts of what happened next — the police report and the lawsuit. They tell very different stories.
The lawsuit claims that Sabedra was “not engaged in any disruptive behavior” when officers approached her and that when Gastelum asked her to come outside with him for questioning, she agreed and cooperated.
Gastelum’s written recap of the incident, by contrast, stated that Sabedra “became agitated when officers made contact and became (sic) to resist arrest.” She then “started to actively resist by kicking her feet out and moving her arms away.”
The lawsuit says Sabedra “did not demonstrate or use any force.” It’s not uncommon for officers to say people they detain are being more aggressive than they actually are.
Eyewitness footage shared with Phoenix New Times shows that the officers tried to detain Sabedra while she was sitting in a chair and asking to simply speak with them. Instead of speaking, they used physical force and dragged her just out of a shaded area so that her legs were right on the scorching June concrete. While Sabedra did flail her legs, nothing in the video indicates that Sabedra was particularly aggressive toward officers, and it's unclear why the officers decided to detain her in the first place.
Ultimately, the City of Phoenix Municipal Court dismissed the charges against Sabedra at the request of the Phoenix City Prosecutor’s Office.
Last June, Phoenix cops yanked Clarissa Sabedra from a chair on her porch and held her against the hot concrete. She says she suffered severe burns.
— Zach Buchanan (@ZHBuchanan) June 19, 2025
She was initially charged with resisting arrest, but those charges were dropped.
Story by @tjlheureux0: https://t.co/QJLQybJoMq pic.twitter.com/N3G4i6ICGJ
‘What is wrong with you guys?’
On top of contrasting narratives, the lawsuit includes details that weren’t in the police report.
The lawsuit states that another officer — Kyle Snider — began “forcefully grabbing” and trying to arrest an unnamed “innocent woman” who had just arrived at the house. It’s unclear if Snider thought this was Sabedra, but the lawsuit claimed the woman repeatedly told Snider that she had just gotten there. Gastelum rushed over to help arrest the woman and place her in a police vehicle. There is no mention of the woman in the police report the department gave New Times. The lawsuit states that Sabedra told both officers they were arresting the wrong person.
At this point, per the narrative in the lawsuit, the officers refocused their attention on Sabedra. (In the video, Gastelum can be seen marching back toward her from the street.) They told her to sit down, which she did. As she was sitting on a shaded porch, the officers grabbed Sabedra's arms and pulled her to the ground. The lawsuit gives no indication about why this happened, but adds that Snider and Gastelum “dragged” Sabedra — who was wearing shorts — to the hot concrete. The video footage shows that this is true, and that while Sabedra’s upper body is still in the shade, her legs are right on the hot ground.
Gastelum’s report, on the other hand, states that Sabedra “laid down on the floor and put her arms underneath her body when we attempted to place a handcuff on her, despite numerous verbal commands to stop resisting and to place her hand behind her back." While the video does show that Sabedra dropped to the ground, it was because she let her body go limp in an act of resistance, likely because she was trying to speak with the officers when they began manhandling her.
The lawsuit also mentions, and the video shows, that “several bystanders gasped and yelled at Officers Snider and Gastelum,” asking the cops, “What is wrong with you guys?” while they held Sabedra to the scorching concrete.
She stayed on the pavement for two minutes, according to the suit. While pinned to the ground, Snider pressed his knee into her leg, causing it to burn intensely while two bystanders pointed out that the officers were burning Sabedra’s legs.There is video of Sabedra “screaming in pain,” according to the lawsuit — but this clip was not provided to New Times.
While more details about the lead-up to the incident would likely be available from body camera footage, officials at the Phoenix Police Records Department said there is a three-to-four-year backlog for body camera footage requests. A notice of claim also mentioned that Snider’s body camera fell off — an alarmingly common occurrence for Phoenix cops.
In the aftermath of Sabedra’s arrest, she had to get emergency care in the adult burn center at Valleywise Health, where doctors removed damaged skin and tissue from her right leg. The lawsuit states that she had serious burns on both legs and suffered burn wound cellulitis and acute pain.
The Phoenix Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on the case or questions about whether the officers’ pinning Sabedra on hot pavement was in line with its policy.
In addition to seeking compensatory, punitive and other damages, Sabedra is demanding that the city cover her attorney and court fees.
Sabedra is hardly the only person who has suffered burns from being pinned down by Phoenix officers. In 2019, they pinned a 17-year-old Black girl to the ground on a 113-degree day, burning some of her skin right off. Earlier that year, a 28-year-old man died in police custody after cops kept him on the hot asphalt for several minutes. In July 2024, Michael Kenyon suffered burns on his face, arms, chest and legs after being pinned down by a cop in a parking lot. He is currently suing the city for $15 million.
