Woman removed from Taylor City Council meeting after tense moment with officials over ICE agreement

Tension was high at the Taylor City Council meeting on Tuesday after a woman scolded the mayor and city officials for agreeing to work with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Melody Simmons is now charged with a misdemeanor after being forcibly removed from the podium. 

"There is a better way, and it could have been handled a lot better," said Simmons's attorrney Ren Nushaj, Simmons' attorney. Nushaj is referring to the way his client was removed from the council chambers. He believes the physical removal was unnecessary. 

"At the end of the day, Melody is expressing her thoughts on an important topic in her community," Nushaj said. 

At the three-minute mark of the meeting, Simmons was asked to leave the podium. That's when things got even more tense, and she was physically removed by three Taylor police officers. 

A video taken during the meeting showed that while officers held on to her arms and escorted her out of the room, Simmons loudly pointed out that her arm was being twisted by the officer. 

"You don't have to break my [expletive] arm," Simmons said in the video.

A Taylor city official spoke to CBS Detroit off-camera and said that he fully understood Simmons' concerns about ICE. However, he said Simmons was demanding that the council and Mayor Tim Woolley participate in a back-and-forth question-and-answer session, but that is not the function of public comment. 

In the meeting, Woolley offered to speak with Simmons afterward. Simmons was removed and issued a misdemeanor ticket for disturbing a public meeting. 

Nushaj said this is not the precedent that should be set in any city. 

"The net effect is a chilling of free speech, and that is the last thing Americans should want," he said.

Nushaj said he is looking forward to fighting this charge in court. 

"She was doing nothing in court, and we are looking forward to our day in court," he said.