An Amazon delivery driver claims in a federal lawsuit she fell and injured her shoulder after a Zelienople police officer pulled her out of her delivery van during the holiday season.

The lawsuit, filed Dec. 13 by Jaala D. Bivins, of Munhall, Allegheny County, against the borough, its police department and officer Michael Kopp tells a different story than the affidavit that detailed charges against her last December.

The lawsuit includes claims of unconstitutional seizure and arrest, excessive use of force, false imprisonment, assault and battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and seeks unspecified damages in relation to the Dec. 11 incident. She is demanding a jury trial.

Police Chief James Miller and borough manager Andrew Spencer said Tuesday they cannot comment on litigation.

Charges against Jaala Bivins could no longer be found in the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania on Dec. 22, but the charges were detailed following the incident in a Dec. 17, 2024, Butler Eagle article.

Bivins was charged with felony aggravated assault, two counts of misdemeanor resisting arrest and summary traffic citations, the article said, quoting an affidavit from police.

All the charges were withdrawn a month later, according to the suit.

On Dec. 11, 2024, Bivins said she parked her delivery van on North Clay Street, left the engine idling, activated the hazard lights and moved to back of the van to retrieve and scan a package before she planned to deliver it.

When she tried to exit the vehicle through the side door with the package, Kopp confronted her and accused her of illegal parking, according to the suit. She said she offered to move the van, but Kopp commanded her not to move it.

Out of concern for her safety, Bivins said she began recording the interaction on her phone. She again offered to move the van, but Kopp refused and said she would be detained, according to the suit.

Kopp asked to see her identification, but Bivins said she refused to produce her driver’s license without further explanation for Kopp and a second officer who arrived at the scene.

According to the suit, Kopp reached into the van, seized her arm, pulled her outside and she fell and injured her shoulder. She said she was violently pulled from the van and thrown to the ground. The van sits 2 or more feet off the ground, she said.

Bivins was arrested, handcuffed, searched in front of bystanders and was not offered a medical evaluation despite complaining about shoulder pain to both officers, according to the suit.

She was taken to a detention facility where she was processed, fingerprinted and charged.

Police, at the time, gave a different account of the incident in an affidavit, saying she bit an officer’s finger.

An officer was directing traffic at the intersection of West Grandview Avenue and North Clay Street due to a disabled vehicle when an Amazon van stopped in the middle of the road and stopped the flow of traffic, according to the affidavit.

The officer yelled for the Bivins to keep going, but she exited the driver’s seat and went into the back of the van. As she was scanning packages, the officer told her she had to move the van, but she said she was doing her job and didn’t have to move the van, according to the affidavit.

She was told two more times to move the van, but didn’t comply and then refused to produce her driver’s license after the officer asked for it and said he was going to cite her, according to the affidavit.

After she argued with the officer, he and another officer removed her from the van and placed her on the ground, but she refused to put her hands behind her back and resisted arrest, according to the affidavit. At one point, she bit an officer’s finger causing a slight break in the skin, police said.

After she was handcuffed, she refused to get in the back of the police car, police said. Two officers from Jackson Township were then called to assist.

At the police station, she refused to get out of the police car, but she eventually did, according to police. Once inside, police said, she continued to resist and was taken to the floor.