Victim of Assault-Robbery, Arrested for using the ‘N’ Word

A Bucks County woman who had been robbed and left bleeding outside the Tweeter Center in Camden just didn’t behave well as a crime victim, or so police thought.

Camden Detective Maurice Gibson, who alleges that Kimberly Halpin made racial slurs in describing her assailants, decided that she should be handcuffed, arrested, and jailed.

Their he-said, she-said trial landed before U.S. District Judge Renee Bumb this week. And a jury of five women and three men unanimously decided yesterday that the detective fabricated information to justify the June 19, 2004, arrest.

Halpin, 29, who is white and now works as a substance and alcohol abuse counselor, sued Camden police for false arrest after she was charged with disorderly conduct while trying to report that she had been mugged as she left an all-day music festival at the Tweeter Center. Gibson, who is African American and has been a police officer for 16 years, said he tried to take Halpin’s report, but she cried too much, was irate, cursed, and then twice used the “N-word” in describing the two assailants who took her backpack, purse, car keys, money, and cell phone.