Trooper Breaks 69-Year-Old's Arm Over Warrant That Wasn't Hers

A 69-year-old woman pulled over on her way to breakfast. A false warrant the troopers couldn't keep straight. A takedown that left her with a fractured eye socket, a broken arm, and a torn rotator cuff. And then, on the trooper's own audio, the sentence that unravels all of it: "everything was not her warrant."

On November 5, 2024, Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Eric Smith stopped Denise Beck in Shawnee, Oklahoma, citing an illegal U-turn and a taillight. 

He arrested her on a warrant that, by the troopers' own on-camera admission, belonged to a different person with a nearly identical name. Beck was never criminally charged or cited. 

She sued the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety and Trooper Smith in federal court, alleging excessive force and seeking at least $75,000. DPS says she was forcibly removed, refused to comply, and fell because she was resisting.