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Good points, especially for her defense attorney, but a reasonable person would have known that it was utterly inappropriate for her to use the taser that way. Tasers have been around for a long time. The effects of using a taser are common knowledge. The bystanders didn't require special training to understand that her taser use constituted police brutality. Neither will her jury.

I'm not sure that your upper-body strength argument is relevant. If the man could not be fully awakened, she should not have tried to move him. She should have made sure that he was breathing, left him on the ground, and called for an ambulance. She could not be sure if the man was simply drunk, or if his diminished consciousness was due to a stroke, heart attack, or some other medical condition.

If there was no ambulance available, and no police backup, then she had the option to simply leave the man on the ground until someone, anyone, finally arrived to help her. That would have been vastly better than what she did.

Your post convinced me that she might -- might -- not be a sadist.

I hope she will be tried. Let the jury sort it out.

"She could not be sure if the man was simply drunk, or if his diminished consciousness was due to a stroke, heart attack, or some other medical condition."

Perhaps.

OTOH, the PMSNBC article has a few interesting factoids about policing this reservation that shed some light on how much experience their officers have when it comes to identifying a drunk:

200,000 calls per year to Reservation Police.
80% of those, or 160,000, are alcohol-related.
Tribal Police force = 35 officers, plus 12 supervisors.
Assuming all 47 of them equally share the burden of responding to calls, that's still 3404 alcohol-related calls per officer, plus 851 non-alcohol-related calls per officer.
They have 2 million acres to patrol.
Many districts covered by one officer per shift.
Some police vehicles log 100,000 mi/year.
Some areas are 45-60 min from nearest jail, meaning a single arrest = 2 hrs of time.
Cash-strapped Oglala tribe has cut force 50% since 20 yrs ago, including the sole "Officer Support Counselor" on the staff.