The City of Grand Rapids Police Department and an 11-year-old girl who was held at gunpoint and handcuffed in 2017 are heading to mediation.  According to the attorney representing Honestie Hodges, the city wants mediation and his client is willing to give the process a chance. The agreement to mediate comes after the attorney intentionally avoided rushing the case to litigation.

According to attorney Steve Drew, “If it is not a physical injury, if it is a terrible emotional trauma, in my judgment, you should wait to see what effect this is going to have on the child. Because when things happen to a person as a child, it can be life-lasting. It is beneficial to me to see how they have reacted to this. How they feel about police officers because of that one day, that one incident, when excessive actions were taken that did not need to be taken for children of that age.”

The incident in question occurred in December 2017. Police surrounded Hodge’s home and entered to search for her aunt. The woman was a suspect in a stabbing that occurred earlier in the evening. Law enforcement secured the scene and handcuffed a screaming Hodges and put her into the back of a squad car. Bodycam videos from the night show that the handcuffs remained on the girl for two minutes and 20 seconds.

According to Hodge’s grandmother, her granddaughter was damaged by the event, and “her innocence” was gone. Two years later, Hodges claims she still has “a lot of anger” inside and that she does not think she is a good kid anymore. She also claims she no longer likes school and does not care, and that she wanted to work in law enforcement but her encounter changed her and she was glad to see the rioting in the streets of Grand Rapids earlier this summer.