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If I lived in a police state I would try and avoid dealing with reminders of what it looked like.

A Tallahassee woman badly injured during a controversial DUI arrest speaks publicly for the first time.

Christina West settled her lawsuit with the city last week for
$475,000.

West admits she had been drinking before she crashed into a home in Tallahassee's Killearn neighborhood last year with three 16 year old foreign exchange students as passengers.

Eyewitness News viewers may remember a picture of Christina West's badly bruised and swollen face.

It was taken after an encounter with two Tallahassee Police officers captured on TPD dash cam.

They were arresting West for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Based on that photo, viewers might not recognize West now.

"I never could've imagined in a 100 years I'd be in a situation like that," West said.

While West admits she was impatient with the officers, she felt they crossed the line with their physical handling of her.

She says she was so beaten up, she soiled herself.

But officers had her in handcuffs and bound her feet.

"Put me in the back of the police car face first in my own excrement and rode all around town face first in my own excrement in pain," West said.

A series of photos West released to Eyewitness News shows the healing process of her body over time.

It included surgery to remove bone fragments from her cheek through her eye socket.

Four TPD officers were suspended not for West's injuries, but for failing to get her immediate medical attention.

"Well of course my opinion is they should've lost their jobs," she said.

But West says the most traumatizing fallout was a Department of Children and Families investigation against her because of her DUI arrest with three minors in the car.

It could've led to her young twins being taken away from her.

"The greatest toll that this thing has taken has been on my family and children," West said.

She says the best result from her case has been changes to TPD.

"It's amazing the changes that are being made," West said. "It's wonderful and we really have a lot of confidence in Chief DeLeo," she said.

http://www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/Exclusive--Christina-West-Speaks-About-DUI-Arrest-Injuries-276381191.html