Posted on 05/10/2005 1:51:41 AM PDT by Stoat
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Tuesday, May 10, 2005 Police used Taser on pregnant driver She was rushing her son to school. She was eight months pregnant. And she was about to get a speeding ticket she didn't think she deserved. So when a Seattle police officer presented the ticket to Malaika Brooks, she refused to sign it. In the ensuing confrontation, she suffered burns from a police Taser, an electric stun device that delivers 50,000 volts. "Probably the worst thing that ever happened to me," Brooks said, in describing that morning during her criminal trial last week on charges of refusing to obey an officer and resisting arrest. She was found guilty of the first charge because she never signed the ticket, but the Seattle Municipal Court jury could not decide whether she resisted arrest, the reason the Taser was applied. To her attorneys and critics of police use of Tasers, Brooks' case is an example of police overreaction. "It's pretty extraordinary that they should have used a Taser in this case," said Lisa Daugaard, a public defender familiar with the case. Law enforcement officers have said they see Tasers as a tool that can benefit the public by reducing injuries to police and the citizens they arrest. Seattle police officials declined to comment on this case, citing concerns that Brooks might file a civil lawsuit. But King County sheriff's Sgt. Donald Davis, who works on the county's Taser policy, said the use of force is a balancing act for law enforcement.
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Brooks' run-in with police Nov. 23 came six months before Seattle adopted a new policy on Taser use that guides officers on how to deal with pregnant women, the very young, the very old and the infirm. When used on such subjects, the policy states, "the need to stop the behavior should clearly justify the potential for additional risks."
"Obviously, (law enforcement agencies) don't want to use a Taser on young children, pregnant woman or elderly people," Davis said. "But if in your policy you deliberately exclude a segment of the population, then you have potentially closed off a tool that could have ended a confrontation."
Brooks was stopped in the 8300 block of Beacon Avenue South, just outside the African American Academy, while dropping her son off for school.
In a two-day trial that ended Friday, the officer involved, Officer Juan Ornelas, testified he clocked Brooks' Dodge Intrepid doing 32 mph in a 20-mph school zone.
He motioned her over and tried to write her a ticket, but she wouldn't sign it, even when he explained that signing it didn't mean she was admitting guilt.
Brooks, in her testimony, said she believed she could accept a ticket without signing for it, which she had done once before.
"I said, 'Well, I'll take the ticket, but I won't sign it,' " Brooks testified.
Officer Donald Jones joined Ornelas in trying to persuade Brooks to sign the ticket. They then called on their supervisor, Sgt. Steve Daman.
He authorized them to arrest her when she continued to refuse.
The officers testified they struggled to get Brooks out of her car but could not because she kept a grip on her steering wheel.
And that's when Jones brought out the Taser.
Brooks testified she didn't even know what it was when Jones showed it to her and pulled the trigger, allowing her to hear the crackle of 50,000 volts of electricity.
The officers testified that was meant as a final warning, as a way to demonstrate the device was painful and that Brooks should comply with their orders.
When she still did not exit her car, Jones applied the Taser.
In his testimony, the Taser officer said he pressed the prongs of the muzzle against Brooks' thigh to no effect. So he applied it twice to her exposed neck.
Afterward, he and the others testified, Ornelas pushed Brooks out of the car while Jones pulled.
She was taken to the ground, handcuffed and placed in a patrol car, the officers testified.
She told jurors the officer also used the device on her arm, and showed them a dark, brown burn to her thigh, a large, red welt on her arm and a lump on her neck, all marks she said came from the Taser application.
At the South Precinct, Seattle fire medics examined Brooks, confirmed she was pregnant and recommended she be evaluated at Harborview Medical Center.
Brooks said she was worried about the effect the trauma and the Taser might have on her baby, but she delivered a healthy girl Jan. 31.
Still, she said, she remains shocked that a simple traffic stop could result in her arrest.
"As police officers, they could have hurt me seriously. They could have hurt my unborn fetus," she said.
"All because of a traffic ticket. Is this what it's come down to?"
Davis said Tasers remain a valuable tool, and that situations like Brooks' are avoidable.
"I know the Taser is controversial in all these situations where it seems so egregious," he said. "Why use a Taser in a simple traffic stop? Well, the citizen has made it more of a problem. It's no longer a traffic stop. This is now a confrontation."
Ding-dong this...are you insane?
No. I'm not insane. I know that a 3000lb auto is dangerous to all pedestrians at 32, 21, 19, and 10 mph. Kids too.
hes got a point though - why is 20 safe and 21 or 25 or 32 not?
A 100 yr old doing 15 mph is just as dangerous as a pregnant lady doing 32
SHE chose to have the situtation raised to a higher level. She was pregnant, she should have put her baby first. Since she referred to her baby as an unborn fetus, I understand why she didn't put the baby first.
Ah, the old "Deathgrip on the steering wheel" trick.
Give her a lobotomy, sterilize her, send her to a re-education camp, take her kids away, force her into a 80 hour work week of community service, tattoo her forehead, chop off her thumbs, kick her dog, confiscate her vehicle, make her eat non-kosher food, force her to register as a pubbie, assign her books to read, take her shoes.......
Then give her a couple million dollars, 40 acres and a mercedes without a steering wheel!
32 in a 20, and won't sign the ticket?? Criminal!!
Deathgrip on the steering wheel?? Childish!!
Sueing the LEO, the city, the school, DOT and the weatherman.... American as applepie.
(/sarc)
Because he's talking apples and oranges. Dead is dead. It's faster to stop a car traveling at 15 mph than at 32 mph, if a child walks in front of a speeding car.
I'm sure the woman was a world class a-hole, but you don't Taser a pregnant woman, especially over a traffic ticket.
It occurs to me that the officer could have told the nice lady that she was ticketed and she could do anything with the ticket that she wanted to but it still would be $126.00 (or whatever).
By the way, as she was taking her child to the African American Academy, there is a possibility of she herself being AfAm and that begs the question of the race of the Taserist.
She had a child with her she was dropping off. She should have already know you don't speed in a school zone. If someone had been driving 32 mph in a 20 mph school zone, and HER child was ran over and killed, she would be screaming for justice.
Maybe where you live, but lots of places believe it or not.. KIDS STILL WALK TO SCHOOL. Your attempt to spin fails miserably.
Kids being killed in school bus accidents is far less than number killed being struck by cars nationally.
20 mph in a 20 mph school zone is enough to kill children IF she hit them. geeez! Blackbird.
The question isn't 20 mph in a 20 mph school zone. It's 32 mph in a 20 mph school zone. Double jeeze.
Pat
32 in a school zone is way too fast and deserves a hefty ticket.
Driving is a privilege.
Signing the ticket is for identification purposes. There actually is a significant problem with people using a fake ID with somone else's valid identification. The requirement of the signature is to protect innocent people from being stuck with other people's fines.
I agree, it probably doesn't seem like the right tool. But then again, we weren't there. Who knows WHAT she did or said. And, don't mess with pregnant women....they are a bundle of hormones with protective intstincts at or approching their highest level....
You'd be whistling a different tune if she had ran over little kids. NO ONE speeds in a school zone.
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