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."
How is refusing to sign an incriminating instrument under duress and threat of imprisonment a political statement
Rather its sound excersizing of a Constitutional right and is therefore apolitical.
so are you justifying the tazing ?
Is that a rhetorical question? If not, my answer is no.
Didn't they tell her to get out of the car and she refused? After letting her hear the tazer and then again telling her to get out of the car she wouldn't let go of the steering wheel?
She knew what was coming and SHE put her..."Unborn Fetus", as she calls it, in danger.
Most mothers, at least those, who are pregnant, call their baby a baby and not a fetus, would get out of the car.
Yep. God forbid you don't prostrate or supplicate yourself in front of a cop the moment he or she demands it, right, citizen? Because cops are rarely, if ever, incorrect. After all, they're the ones with the badges and the guns.
32 mph in a 20 mph school zone is enough to kill children if she hit them. You rationalize it any way that suits you. She was speeding in a school zone.
How warped we have become.. a mother who has already had her child.. still uses the term FETUS to describe her child pre birth after the fact... and you think liberal indoctrination isn't having an effect.
I already answered your last question. Did they or did they not ask her to get out of the car?
It's tough to make a case that 32 MPH is "speeding" in any circumstance, and up here in MA, School Zones are simply speed traps, i.e., revenue enhancers for the local PD.
I'm not.. anything that causes muscular reaction and convulsion intrinsically has the capacity to induce labor, at any point of a pregnancy in some cases.
Its not tough at all 32MPH in a 20MPH is speeding... its not a difficult case to make at all... its over 1.5 times the legal limit.
You may think they are nothing but speed traps, but around schools here the limit is 15MPH, and honestly it should be. Kids all over the place, no reason drivers should not be driving very slowly and cautiously for the block or two around a school.
"I hope you don't have children with that attitude. I do. If someone was speeding and ran over my daughter..."
I obey speed limits, but 20 mph school zones with not a person in sight, let alone a child, make me think the morons who set school zone speed limits are more interested in collecting traffic fines then the safety of children. They use the sickening mantra of "It's for the children." to justify their little power grab.
Pathetic.
for what purpose other than hassle factor was she asked to exit the vehicle?
After letting her hear the tazer
Psychological intimidation by servants of the court, who full well were aware of her pregnant condition
and then again telling her to get out of the car
again, why ? - the ticket was already dispensed and the cause for stop was complete
she wouldn't let go of the steering wheel?
why should she - IMO - she was being intimidated and coerced into signing an incriminating instrument.
whats say we agree to disagree ?
"I obey speed limits, but 20 mph school zones with not a person in sight, let alone a child, make me think the morons who set school zone speed limits are more interested in collecting traffic fines then the safety of children. They use the sickening mantra of "It's for the children." to justify their little power grab."
She was dropping her own child off at school, so it's pretty likely there were other kids around.
mostly unbelted in school buses - who still dont have belts due to lobbyists
Their concern is an illusion - and the speed limit is a means of mitigating the legal threat of that lack of safety belts, while generating revenue IMO
No, but going 32 in a 20 mph school zone, might endanger the already born fetus' of other parents.
I missed that one. I said Monday thru Friday. They told me that children play in the school yard playground, even on the weekend. I have never forgotten that.
No speeding in school zones...ever.
Hey, ding dong. Hitting a kid with a car at 15 mph will kill them too!
would the police be justified in tazing him/her - disabling the pacemaker, causing a heart attack.....all because he/she refused to sign an incriminating instrument of the court by driving 32 miles an hour
Now - ask yourself if someone galloping on a horse would have been stopped...........probably not - but why ?
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