Joyce Nero: Let me know when you’re ready.
Elena Colon-Marrero: I am ready.
Joyce Nero: In 1994, I drove carpool. Took a co-worker, he asked me to take him to his ex-wife’s house to take money for her and the kids. We got to the ex-wife’s house. I stayed out front, he went around the back to the back door. I stayed out front, sat on the hood of the car. I heard a little bit of a commotion. Mike came out, got in the car, and we drove away. Police stopped us, pulled me out of the car, threw me on the ground, threw him on the ground, and Mike kept saying “She didn’t do anything, she didn’t do anything.” Here they horrified, they horribly charged me with aggravated burglary and aggravated assault. Here, Mike opened the back door— that was the aggravated burglary— and there was a guy that was drunk in there with his kids. Got into an altercation and he punched the guy in the nose and broke his nose. They would not give me an open discovery, to pull in the neighbors that I was talking to. It’s horrifying. That’s gonna be with me the rest of my life. Horrifying.
ECM: Is there anything else you want people to know?
JN: Yeah, I was wrongly accused. It was very unjustified, very unjustified. And getting thrown on the ground like that, I still have a scar from 1994, that’s how hard they threw me on the concrete. So yes. Officers at the scene need to settle down. They need more diplomacy, they need to think about what they’re doing and how it’s gonna effect the people they’re dealing with. I can’t even get senior living, senior apartment, because of the conviction. It’s terrible. ‘Cause they made the decision on the scene. I was sitting on the hood of my car. And that’s all I have to say.
ECM: Okay. Thank you.
END OF INTERVIEW