Minneapolis, Mi. – A food delivery driver was awarded a $100,000 settlement after a Minneapolis Park Officer was seen on body camera video pulling his gun on her during a routine traffic stop.
Jenice Hodge, 42, was working for a food delivery service on July 12, 2019 when she was pulled over by Minneapolis Park police Officer Calvin Pham. The officer explained to Hodge that he pulled her over for not wearing a seatbelt and for having her cell phone in her hand while driving.
Within 60 seconds of the stop, as Hodge goes into her wallet to retrieve her license, Pham suddenly pulls his gun out of his holster and orders her out of the car.
Hodge said she was scared and confused.
“I didn’t even have my driver’s license out of the sleeve and I had a gun pointed at my head,” Hodge told KSTP.
Body cam footage shows a confused and scared Hodge with her hands through the car’s sun roof, repeatedly telling the officer to “calm down” as he told her to get out of the car.
“Step out of the car now! I will rip you out if you do not step out of the car now!,” Officer Pham tells Hodge as he rests his gun on his chest.
Pham calls for back up over his radio as Hodge can be heard telling her husband, who was on her cell phone, where she is. Pham suddenly becomes more aggressive, pointing his gun at Hodge, and yelling at her to, “Get the fuck out of the car!”
Hodge exits the vehicle with her hands raised saying, “I don’t have anything. Why are you pointing the gun at me?”
Pham pushes Hodge to the ground and arrests her.
The officer later wrote in his incident report that he believed “Jenice may have a gun” after he noticed a permit to carry card in her wallet. However, nowhere in his report did Pham make any mention of seeing a gun.
Pham also said in his report that he saw Hodge reach into her purse, reach her hand “near her waistline and in between the seat and center console,” leading him to believe she was trying to conceal something or was reaching for a weapon.
Hodge told KSTP that she does have a valid permit to carry but she did not have her gun with her that day and denies reaching anywhere except in her wallet to retrieve her driver’s license.
Hodge said she feared for her life during the traffic stop and thought about a similar traffic stop that led to the shooting death of Philando Castile.
“That was the first thing that ran through my mind,” Hodge said. “I’m going to die the same way that this young man died.”
In October 2021, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board voted to pay Hodge $100,000 to settle her lawsuit.
The following month, Officer Pham resigned from Park Police. His separation form doesn’t list a reason for why he left the department, according to KSTP.
The traffic stop involving Hodge was not mentioned in Pham’s personnel files.
His law enforcement license is currently inactive, according to the Minnesota Peace Officers Standards and Training Board.
