A federal prosecutor has sued a group of New York City Police Department officers, arguing that she was wrongly arrested after a traffic stop in Hell's Kitchen in November.

In an interview Monday, assistant U.S. attorney Bianca Forde of the District of Columbia said she and her partner were in New York for Thanksgiving weekend and decided to go to a comedy show. After leaving the show, they were pulled over, and the police told Forde's partner, who was driving, to step out of the car.

Forde said she found that shocking, because they were initially told they were stopped for not using a turn signal. She began asking the officers questions about what was going on.

"It was clear to me immediately that my questions somehow offended the legitimacy of the police officers we were dealing with, at least in their eyes," she said.

Forde and her partner are both Black, and Forde said it was clear that their race played a role in the stop.

"I've seen enough and read enough, and I know enough to know when racial profiling is the basis for a stop," she said. "Yes, an officer can step folks out of the car, but you cannot selectively choose who you step out of a car based on race or other protected characteristics. And that is what was happening from my vantage point on that night, and that is why I spoke up, because that is what I'm trained to do."

Seeking to provide legal advice to her partner, Forde identified herself as an attorney, but the officers told her she wasn't, she said.

"In court we say, you know, I can't look into somebody's head and tell what they're thinking, but objectively I can look at that and see what their conduct is, and … I can't think of anything other than the fact that I was a casually dressed Black woman on a Saturday night in a 2020 Camaro with my Black partner who was wearing a red hoodie that suggested to them that I wasn't an attorney in their minds," she said.

As a regional director of the National Black Prosecutors Association, Forde said she felt an obligation to hold the officers accountable.

"A large part of my work in that capacity has been working towards changing the narrative around criminal justice and prosecution, and on that night, I felt as though I should be holding those officers accountable," she said. "They were bad actors that night, and that type of behavior threatens the relationship between the community and law enforcement."

Forde's partner was finally allowed to leave after passing a Breathalyzer test, but Forde was arrested, charged with obstructing government administration and related offenses and held for about 24 hours before arraignment, according to the complaint, which was filed June 24.

"I think that ultimately, I was arrested for getting on the officers' nerves," she said. "And that was confirmed to me when I was told [by an officer that] 'but for my mouth,' I would be with my partner that night."

She said the officers performed an illegal search of her belongings, learned she was, in fact, a federal prosecutor and leaked the story to the New York Post. She was later denied a promotion at work because of the arrest, according to the complaint; Forde declined to discuss the effect on her job in an interview.

In April, the charges were dismissed and the record was sealed, according to the complaint, but Forde had spent $10,000 on a criminal defense lawyer and sought professional mental health treatment in connection with the incident, which she described as traumatizing.

"But also, I do think that you know, it's almost propelled me into what I believe my purpose is, and you know I do think that [as] prosecutors, we have a power and an obligation to really change the system and holding rogue actors accountable is part of that obligation," she said.

Her attorney, Caitlin Robin of Caitlin Robin & Associates, said that's why the case is important.

"Because you know, you think about all the people who aren't as sophisticated as my client, who don't know what their rights are, who can't protect themselves," she said. "It benefits society as a whole to call bad actors out."

Press officers for the NYPD and the New York City Law Department each said they plan to review the case.