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I-Team: Woman Hurt At '07 Boston Marathon Suing Police

BOSTON (CBS) - It was a crash course in the middle of the 2007 Boston Marathon when a woman run was down by a state trooper while she was watching the race. Now, that woman is fighting back, claiming state police tried to cover up their role in the accident.

WBZ-TV video from the marathon will play a key role in this case.

"Seeing it in the video confirmed what I remembered, but it's painful to watch it," said Norma Shulman, the victim.

WBZ-TV's Kathy Curran reports.

The video shows Shulman being knocked to the ground by a state police motorcycle while she watched the Boston Marathon back in 2007 in Natick.

Now, Shulman is suing the state police, Sgt. Dennis Bertulli, who drove the motorcycle, and the lieutenant who investigated the accident, accusing them of negligence, battery and civil rights violations.

"Something higher on the bike hit me in the ribs," said Shulman.

Our I-Team investigation called into question a state police report, which blamed Shulman for the accident.

Marathon Diagram
This police report diagram shows the officer's account of the accident.

The report contained a diagram showing the Framingham woman stepping into the path of the motorcycle.

 

"It sounded like I did something that I didn't do. It said I entered the roadway and I had my back to traffic and I struck the vehicle. It was like a nightmare to see this," said Shulman.

The state police aren't backing down. Timothy Burke represents Lt. William Cederquist, who wrote the accident report.

"He'll tell you she did not have a right to be there, that there's a very short time period that Sgt. Bertulli had to react given the rate of speed and his location to these women," said Burke.

"The feeling of injustice and feeling powerless can make you really have symptoms you know, feel sick to your stomach and anxious," said Shulman.

After the I-Team exposed the case, it was reviewed again by state police. They subsequently found Bertulli and Shulman were at fault.

Shulman was diagnosed with a chest contusion, and she also had back pain. She wants the state to pay for her medical bills, but this case is more about how the state police handled the accident.

State police had no comment on Monday because of the pending litigation.

Lt. Cederquist is the commander of the motorcycle unit for state police. Sgt. Bertulli, meanwhile, has since retired.

The trial is supposed to wrap up by the end of the week.

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