TOLEDO, Ohio — A former DoorDash driver has sued Defiance and two city police officers, saying she was targeted and ridiculed during a 2021 arrest because she is transgender.
Bobbi Shaffer filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of Ohio federal court, seeking compensatory and punitive damages for “emotional distress, anxiety, humiliation and embarrassment” caused during the OVI arrest on Dec. 27, 2021.
“I filed the lawsuit because I felt that this was an attack on who I am as a person, and Defiance has never apologized for being wrong,” Shaffer said.
Shaffer was making her last delivery of the night, taking an order from McDonald's to an apartment complex in Defiance, when she was being pulled over by police.
11 Investigates examined her case in 2022, examining available video and documents and talking to Shaffer and others with knowledge of the case.
Officer Whitney Schalk's body cam video showed the explanation she gave to Shaffer.
On the video, Schalk can be heard telling Shaffer, "So the reason I stopped you is because we had a complaint that you were driving all over the roadway, that you were going left of center a couple of times."
Shaffer replied that she was just delivering for DoorDash and the officer had the wrong person.
"We were given your vehicle description, a black Ford Edge, as well as the plate," the officer told Shaffer.
That description was provided by a 911 caller, Timothy Eubanks, who claimed to be traveling behind Shaffer and witnessed her crossing the center line several times.
The officer never told Shaffer during the stop that she saw her do anything wrong but continued to cite the caller who alerted police as the reason she pulled her over.
Shaffer told WTOL 11 in 2022 that she became increasingly upset when it became clear she was suspected of drinking and driving.
"I was getting agitated because I don't drink or do drugs," she said. "I never have."
Schalk administered a field sobriety test and told Shaffer that she wanted to look at her eyes to determine if she had been drinking.
"I'm gonna look at your eyes if you're okay with that," she said. "It's just gonna show me if there's any alcohol in your system or anything, OK?"
Shaffer was arrested and taken to the Defiance Police Department for a urine test, where she said she also was strapped to a chair.
During that time, she said two officers made derogatory remarks about her gender.
"I heard another male officer say 'you know they're going to have fun with him tonight at CCNO,' because I'm the 'closest thing to a woman some of them had ever seen,'" Shaffer previously told WTOL 11.
Four months after her arrest, a urinalysis came back and showed that she had no alcohol or drugs in her system and the charge was dismissed. But prior to that, she was fired by DoorDash and fired from her job as a Paulding school bus driver. Her arrest was also reported in local media.
She told WTOL 11 that the stress and financial anxiety caused her to consider taking her own life.
Besides Defiance, Schalk and fellow responding officer Zachary Higgins are named in the lawsuit.
When reached for comment, Defiance law director Sean C. O’Donnell referred 11 Investigates to a statement the city provided in 2022 after completing an internal investigation into the actions of police officers.
That statement read: "The city handles allegations by the public against public employees with the utmost concern. The Defiance Police Department and the City Law Department performed a thorough investigation into these allegations. The investigation found the allegations against city personnel to be unsubstantiated and unfounded."
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