A Camrose dentist says she was battered and beat up during a physical and sexual assault, after an Alberta sheriff pulled her over on the highway earlier this month.
Simona Tibu, 41, told the Edmonton Journal she was driving to her office in Edmonton from her Camrose home on Aug. 3 when an officer on a motorcycle pulled her over on Highway 21 for speeding.
She told Global News the sheriff violently hit the driver's side window of the car when he approached, and when she rolled down the window Tibu told him she would not produce her license and registration if he continued to hit her car.
She says she also told him she would begin filming him on her phone if he hit the car again.
“At that moment, he became very violent. He took his hands through my window, hit my right hand, where I have bruises on it, smashed my cell phone out of my hands, and told me… ‘Get out of your car now.'" Tibu alleges.
She told the Journal when she got out of the car the sheriff ordered her to stand against the trunk of the car, where he allegedly began to hit her in the breasts and push his groin into her backside.
Global reports Tibu began to scream, hoping to draw attention to the alleged assault, which only made the sheriff "even more aggressive."
“I felt a hit in my head then he smashed my head on the pavement on the road until I was full of blood. Then he told me, ‘Now I’m going to walk all over you.’”
Tibu shared several photos of her alleged attack, showing deep cuts and bruises on her face and body as she lay in hospital.
Story continues after the slideshow
Simona Tibu's Alleged Injuries
RCMP spokeswoman Josee Valiquette told the Journal the sheriff called RCMP officers for backup and the incident ended when Camrose police and RCMP arrived.
“I am going to make justice happen,” Tibu told Global.
“No individual should be handcuffed and be beaten by the police. No women should be handcuffed by the police and be sexually assaulted.”
“He believed that I’m a poor immigrant, and because I stood up for myself … he decided to teach me a lesson,” she told the Journal.
“He chose the wrong person to fight with.”
According to the Alberta Justice and Solicitor general spokeswoman Michelle Davio, the investigations of Tibu and the sheriff will be done by different RCMP officers.
Global News learned Tuesday the sheriff in question has been placed on desk duty.
Tibu's allegations have ignited an intense debate about police brutality online.
On one Facebook page, Cop Block, many commenters called the sheriff's alleged actions "shocking, but not really surprising," "a joke" and "fishy."
Others, however, said they were waiting to hear more of the sheriff's side of the story.