Crime & Safety

Newton Woman Tasered Outside Apple Store Will Fight Charges

Xiaojie Li says she was treated 'inhumanely.' Police say she was trespassing. Court date is set for March.

A woman arrested in a New Hampshire shopping mall in December, after being Tasered by Nashua Police, has pleaded not-guilty to two charges, and will appear in court in March, according to the Nashua Telegraph.

Xiaojie Li, 44, of Newton, was charged with one count of misdemeanor resisting arrest or detention and one count of misdemeanor criminal trespass on Dec. 11.

Her attorney, David Ruoff of Manchester, told the Nashua Telegraph that she plans to fight the charges.

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Li has released a statement in her native Mandarin to Chinese media covering the case, translated to English through a person acting on Li's behalf, according to her uncle, David Chen of Thousand Crane II restaurant in Nashua. The statement reads, in part:

“I am outraged by what happened to me at one of the (Apple) stores in New Hampshire. I was treated inhumanly without just cause ... I have always seen the United States of America as a country of rule of law and democracy, which has a high regard for human rights and treats different races equally. I have suffered tremendous physical pain and trauma, in addition to the damage done to my dignity.”

Find out what's happening in Newtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Despite claims that a language barrier was at the root of the arrest, Nashua Police maintain that Li was trespassing, and knew it.

She had been asked to leave the store and fully understood that, according to Nashua Police Capt. Bruce Hansen, who in December told Nashua Patch that their use of a Taser in the Dec. 11 mall incident was warranted under the "force continuum," which allows for incremental use of force during an arrest – from police officer presence up to and including deadly force

Hansen cited an Apple store policy that allows the company to limit the number of items sold to a single customer, adding that Li had returned to the store two days after being asked to leave, and on Dec. 11, refused to leave when asked by a store manager.

She had $16,000 cash with her at the time of her arrest, Hansen said.

When contacted by Nashua Patch in December, an Apple spokesman said they would have no comment on the incident.


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