Liverpool, NY — A Syracuse schoolteacher raced home last year after a phone app alerted her to a reported fire at her residence in Clay.
Before long, Michaela Kiewra, 60, ended up in handcuffs in the back of an Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office patrol car, questioned about drugs and alcohol, and charged with a misdemeanor for fleeing police.
Deputies say Kiewra was pulled over around 8 p.m. on March 5, 2020 for going 58 mph in a 30 mph zone on Wetzel Road near Liverpool High School. She stopped, got out of her vehicle, then jumped back in and took off without permission, going 55 to 60 mph again. Kiewra then stopped a second time near the intersection with Oswego Road (Route 57).
That’s when Deputy Sean Andrews put her in handcuffs, questioned her about drinking and drugs, and then arrested her for fleeing.
Kiewra is now suing Andrews and the sheriff’s office, saying that he needlessly roughed her up during the arrest. She maintains that she was simply rushing home because she feared her house might be on fire. It was a false alarm.
Her lawyer, Terrence Hoffman, said Kiewra has proof of emails and texts she sent at the time begging other family members to check her Vine Meadow Road residence after the fire alarm alert on her phone. When she didn’t get an answer, she took off from her child’s school event in Liverpool and began speeding home.
When the deputy first pulled her over, just outside of Liverpool High School, Kiewra says that she told him that her house might be on fire and asked him to follow her. She thought the lights and siren behind her was simply the deputy giving her a police escort to get home more quickly, Hoffman said.
But Kiewra soon realized that the deputy wanted her to stop again, Hoffman said. That’s when she stopped and says that Andrews forcibly removed her from the vehicle, while painfully twisting her left wrist and handcuffing her. He then questioned whether she was intoxicated or high on drugs (she denied both) before putting her in the back of his patrol car for an hour and a half.
Kiewra complained that she was in pain and asked Andrews to remove the handcuffs, the lawsuit continues. He did not remove the handcuffs.
When told that she was being charged with speeding, Kiewra told Andrews that she was going to consult with a lawyer about her treatment, the lawsuit alleges. Other deputies arrived at the scene and Kiewra was later told she was going to be charged with fleeing a police officer, as well.
Kiewra was later charged with misdemeanor fleeing police and speeding, a violation. She was ticketed and released. She’s now awaiting trial on the charges in Clay Town Court, with her trial delayed indefinitely by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Kiewra is a longtime educator with the Syracuse schools who, coincidentally, was two months ago the victim of an attack by a fellow teacher at the Johnson Vocation Center downtown.
The deputy who stopped her, Andrews, has an infamous history: He was once suspended for Tasering a woman during a 2009 traffic stop, with dash cam video of the incident landing Andrews on NBC’s “Today” show, as well as CNN and CBS.
Kiewra’s lawyer in the recent case, Hoffman, is the same one who represented Andrews’ victim in 2009. The county settled the earlier case for $75,000, Hoffman said.
Kiewra is now suing Andrews for assault and battery, emotional distress and excessive force. She names the county and the sheriff’s office in the lawsuit, as well.
Kiewra described her story -- and expressed her frustration -- in a statement filed in court papers:
“I was speeding to get home,” Kiewra told deputies, according to notes filed in her criminal case. “My fire alarm was going off on my phone. You were all a bunch of a**holes. I see now why people don’t trust the cops. I was panicked.”
Kiewra’s lawsuit is still in its early stages, and the sheriff’s office has not yet replied in court. Her criminal case remains pending and she’s due back in Clay Town Court in November.
Staff writer Douglass Dowty can be reached at ddowty@syracuse.com or 315-470-6070.
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