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“Grab anybody,� one officer from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department can be heard on the video of the incident, which shows Hendrix calmly walking down the sidewalk. Hendrix was grabbed. And she was shocked with a Taser, over and over again.

“Why are you doing that?� she cried. “I didn’t do anything.�

She and dozens of other protesters had been at Ballpark Village, at one of the numerous protests against police brutality following the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson in 2014.

Hendrix, a former member of the University City School Board, ended up being charged with resisting arrest and impeding traffic. She went to court and was acquitted. She sued two city police officers over her assault. Last year, a jury awarded her $3,500 in damages.

So why is the city now taking Hendrix to court asking her to pay thousands of dollars in attorney fees to be collected by the city counselor’s office?

“This is a bullying tactic,� says Jack Waldron, one of Hendrix’s attorneys from the nonprofit law firm .

In the lawsuit, Hendrix sued two police officers, Stephen Ogunjobi and Louis Wilson. The jury awarded damages against Ogunjobi, the officer who used a Taser against Hendrix, but not Wilson, who was involved in detaining her.

The city asked Circuit Court Judge Michael Stelzer to award attorney fees for its representation of Wilson. Stelzer said no, and now the city is appealing the case and asking the Court of Appeals to award such fees.

Hendrix could end up owing the city thousands of dollars after she was assaulted by a police officer.

“I feel that it’s outrageous,� Hendrix says. “It’s super frustrating that this is still continuing under the current mayor.�

Hendrix is referring to Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, who won election as mayor in part on a platform of holding police accountable for their actions. Hendrix supports the mayor. She was a co-chair for the campaign of U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, a close ally of Jones and fellow Ferguson protest leader. She doesn’t understand why the city counselor’s office is continuing an action that seems designed to punish residents for exercising their First Amendment rights.

“I’m wondering how aware her administration is of this policy. It’s being used to harm citizens,� Hendrix told me.

It’s part of a pattern in how the city has dealt with police brutality cases for decades, in an attempt to make it very difficult for citizens to be compensated when police officers overstep their bounds. It often starts with trumped up resisting arrest charges. Even when presented with evidence that it was a citizen who was assaulted, and not the other way around, the city has historically had a policy that it will not drop charges unless the citizen agrees not to sue the city for damages.

For the city to then go after a citizen for about $50,000 worth of attorney fees because they didn’t win every single count of a lawsuit is way over the top, says Waldron. It creates a barrier for poor people to have access to the municipal and county courts by making the costs too high, either through fines and fees, or, in this case, a punitive legal action.

“Even if you go to court and even if you win a civil rights lawsuit against a police officer, you could still be targeted for financial punishment by the city,� says Maureen Hanlon, another of Hendrix’s attorneys. “These fees are a way to try to punish people for standing up for their rights.�

Asked about the case, Jones spokesman Nick Dunne said that as a general practice, the mayor’s office doesn’t comment on pending legal cases. However, he added, with new city counselor Sheena Hamilton just starting her job on Monday, the Hendrix case is “under review.�

The case is scheduled for argument Tuesday before the Court of Appeals. While both sides in the dispute have legitimate arguments to make on that day — Hendrix is seeking a higher jury award; the city is seeking a full reversal of the award — Hendrix hopes that the city at least drops its request for attorney fees, so that dark cloud of financial ruin isn’t hanging over her head.

“It makes me angry,� she says. “It’s part and parcel to why we were in this movement to begin with. To see it enacted toward me is why we continue to stay in the struggle and stay in the fight.�