“Suddenly and without warning,” said Riley Ross, a lawyer for Ms. Young, at a September news conference, “a troop of Philadelphia police officers, dressed in riot gear and brandishing batons, descended on the car, smashing several of the vehicle’s windows. The officers then forcibly yanked Ms. Young and her cousin from the vehicle and physically beat her and him into the street, causing significant injuries.”
According to a statement from the district attorney, Mr. Kardos is accused of pulling Ms Young’s hair from her SUV, “after which she was beaten with fists, batons and some unknown objects.” Mrs. Young has never been charged.
After an investigation into internal affairs, two officers – including Mr Kardos – were fired and 14 were awaiting disciplinary proceedings through the police commission of inquiry, a city spokesman said in September. The Philadelphia Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
Appearing at a Zoom press conference on Thursday, Ms. Young said she now becomes nervous and scared when a police officer is in a car behind her. She had a message for Mr. Kardos: “You could have talked to me. I am very easy to talk to. What you did to me, what you did to me in front of my son, was not acceptable.”
“I don’t wish this on my worst enemy,” she added. “Dealing with this has been one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in my life so far.”
A lawyer for Mrs. Young, Thomas Fitzpatrick, said the charges were “a step in the right direction” and added that a civil lawsuit against the Fraternal Order of Police was still pending.
The lawyers of Mrs. Young filed the case in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas in September against the national group for a since-deleted social media post that said the child was “wandering barefoot in an area of complete lawlessness.” The post, which showed an officer hugging the child, read: “All this police officer in Philadelphia cared about at the time was protecting this child.”