“Get back in the car now,” McCampbell shouts.
In the footage, Porter hesitates and then turns to walk back to the driver’s side of her vehicle. At the press conference Porter described being “utterly confused” at that moment.
The two deputies then move in and detain her. The video captures footage of them trying to twist her arms behind her back and then push her up against the car.
As the deputies drag her back toward their vehicle, Porter pulls away and cries out. The footage is shaky and unclear, but at some point during the struggle, Porter is knocked unconscious.
“I’m complying to get back in the car, and I do not make it,” Porter said at Wednesday’s press conference, recalling the incident. “How terrifying is that?”
After losing consciousness, Porter was taken to a nearby hospital before being booked into jail for felony resisting arrest, police reports show. The district attorney never filed those charges against her.
The Sheriff’s Department said in a statement that Porter refused to get back in the car and that she hit the deputies when they tried to detain her. That statement also suggested that an edited-down 10-minute video of the incident released by Porter’s legal team did not tell the full story. A spokesperson for the department said he could not further clarify what was inaccurate in the edited video. The department declined to comment further on the case, citing pending litigation.
Porter’s lawsuit, filed last month, alleges deputies unlawfully detained her, used excessive force, and lied on police reports. It also accuses the department of hiding key evidence about the incident because it still has not released footage from the body camera of arresting officer McDowell.