LOS ANGELES : Tearful Joyner Tells Court of Husband’s Stop by LAPD

Olympic sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner cried in federal court Tuesday as she recalled the day her husband was ordered out of the car at gunpoint by police in Hollywood.

The only U.S. woman to win four track and field medals in one Olympics testified that when Al Joyner showed up at their Mission Viejo home on May 8, 1992, he was no longer a “happy-go-lucky” person.

Joyner, who won a gold medal in the triple jump at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, was on the way to a Hollywood news conference that day to announce his plans to compete in meets at UCLA and Occidental College the next day.

Instead, he said he ended up pulled over twice within minutes that day, and then he returned to the scene with camera crews to demonstrate what had happened.

Joyner, 34, had been training for the 110-meter high hurdles and triple jump, and had hoped to qualify for the Olympic trials and ultimately be named to the U.S. team competing in Barcelona that year.

Police said they ran a check on Joyner’s license plate because he was driving erratically and was a threat to other drivers. He was not ticketed, however.

Joyner sued the Los Angeles Police Department and nine officers, claiming he was pulled over because he was black. Five of the officers, most of whom participated in the second stop, have been dismissed as defendants.