Posted on 03/17/2007 5:12:07 PM PDT by glorgau
I wouldn't pick a fight with him either but would you want to be a policeman back at the station explaining why you and your partner could not handle an unarmed fifty six year old? I doubt that you would get a very sympathetic hearing with a lot of,"oh, yeah, some of these older guys are really tough". Just try to imagine it.
So, any chance this will set any precedent as far as when somebody beats the snot out of some scumbag(s) when they're attacked?
I won't hold my breath.
ping interesting
Oh, you are right there. It would be never ending with those guys. All the cops I know give each other a ration of BS about things like that.
So if he came out of the house guns a blazin and shot the intruders before he realized they were "law enforcement officers", would he have been charged with murder or manslaughter or assault and still be in prison?
Good question as that may have been my automated response.
Me too.
>>There should not have been a charge for the Taser and he should not have had to pay court costs. IMO.<<
The cops should be prosecuted.
Those deputies are lucky to have walked away alive. They were acting as process servers in a civil matter and had no legal right to enter his home. They had no legal standing to arrest his wife for "obstruction of justice" when she refused to bring her husband out. They should be sitting in a jail cell.
LOL...sounds like my old man...He'll be 75 in July and can still out-bench me. He retired as a cop 10 years ago, and at the time was in better shape than about 3/4 of his coworkers, and still looks about 20 years younger than his age....
Assistant State Attorney Jeff Young told the judge the case "could have been over in five seconds" if the Coffins "had simply come out and cooperated."
This disturbs me. It's almost as though the ADA is saying, "It doesn't matter that my deputies violated the constitution and entered a man's house illegally. If they had just done what we wanted, we wouldn't have hurt them."
This is so egregiously awful and illegal. I hope he sues the cops and the police dept.
Note that these were Sheriff's Deputies and not members of a police department. Sheriffs are elected officials...hopefully, the voters of Sarasota County will hold their Sheriff accountable for the actions of his deputies next election. Certainly, his opponent would be remiss to not raise this incident, and the current office holder's apparent tolerance of it, as an election issue.
My brother is a county commissioner down there, former major FHP, heehee, I'll bet he's chomping on someone down there. I don't know what he'd have to do with this, except it's everybody's business if these jerks are running around like crazy SWAT team members.
No. "acquitted" means found not guilty.
Good thing the Judge didn't buy that argument, either.
Does the homeowner still have to go to trial on the remaining felony charge?
Hard to say. They charged him and if the judge didn't throw it out, he remains charged. Usually, if the judge threw out most of the charges, the DA will allow him to plead guilty to a lesser charge and the case never goes to court......, or he could have all charges dropped, or the DA could be a real hard case and decide to prosecute even with only one chargeable offense. Like I said, it is hard to say.
It is always nice, though, when the judge says, in essence, that the prosecution has no case worth bothering the court with.
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