A US Homeland Security Inspector has been charged with violating a Chinese woman's rights after he allegedly beat her at the Rainbow Bridge at US-Canadian border in Niagara Falls on July 21.

　　Robert Rhodes has been suspended from his job and is out of jail on US$50,000 bail.

　　Zhao Yan, a 37-year-old businesswoman from Tianjin, alleges Rhodes sprayed her with pepper spray, threw her against a wall, kneeled her in the head and then smashed her face against the ground during an attack that lasted at least three minutes.

　　Her cell phone and camera were broken during the beating.

　　Zhao, who sells fitness equipment in China, arrived in the United States on July 12 for a business meeting. It was her first trip to the country.

　　Last Wednesday, Zhao was visiting Niagara Falls with two friends when the attack took place.

　　Boarder guards had just detained a man for trying to smuggle marijuana over the boarder from Canada when they noted Zhao and her two friends had been standing near the suspect.

　　Rhodes told investigators he asked the three women to step into an office, but they bolted. He said he grabbed the nearest woman, Zhao, but she put up a struggle.

　　One of his supervisors said a subsequent investigation has proven that Zhao and her friends had nothing to do with the marijuana case.

　　Senior Special Agent Steven MacMartin, who interviewed the victim through an interpreter several hours later, noted in an affidavit that "both of her eyes were nearly swollen shut, that she had a large swollen area on the front of her forehead, that she had bruises around the eyes, and that she had a contusion high up on her forehead. (The woman) also complained of a scraped knee."

　　"I kept explaining in English that I am just a visitor here with a passport, but there was no response," said Zhao.

　　Inspectors sent Zhao to a hospital after they saw her passport and realized she wasn't involved with the drug smuggling.