Posted on 11/22/2007 7:37:13 AM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
Was a Utah Highway Patrol trooper acting within policy when he used a Taser on a driver who refused to sign a traffic ticket?
That is the question UHP internal investigators hope to answer after Trooper John Gardner - a 14-year UHP veteran - zapped Vernal resident Jared Massey with the device for refusing to sign a speeding ticket or submit to being arrested during a traffic stop about 10 a.m. on Sept. 14.
The incident placed UHP on the defensive when the officer's dashboard video of the emotional confrontation found its way onto Internet site YouTube.
"We are doing an internal investigation to see if the trooper's actions were warranted," said Trooper Cameron Roden, a UHP spokesman. That investigation is expected to be completed this week or sometime next week.
The 10-minute video begins as the officer passes a sign clearly showing a speed limit of 40 mph on U.S. 40 in Uintah County.
Gardner - who remained on active duty as of Wednesday - then proceeds to pull over Massey's Dodge SUV.
The trooper approaches the driver's side window and twice asks for Massey's driver's license and registration. The second time, the trooper is audibly frustrated, saying, "Driver's license and registration, like now."
"How fast did you think you were going?" the officer asks.
"I was going 68," Massey could be heard saying.
"OK, there's a sign right there that says 40 miles per hour," the officer says, shortly before returning to his squad car.
When Gardner returns to the SUV with the traffic ticket, Massey refuses to sign the citation, insisting that Gardner show him the 40 mph sign.
"Well, you are going to sign this first," Gardner said.
After refusing, Gardner asks Massey to exit the SUV, which at 2:23 minutes into the video, he does.
The pair walk to the front of the officer's car, where Gardner points his Taser at Massey, ordering him to place his hands behind his back.
''What the hell's wrong with you?'' Massey asks, while turning and beginning to walk back to the SUV. Gardner tells the driver to turn around, but he refuses and continues walking away.
The officer aims the Taser, and at 2:37 minutes into the video, fires it into Massey, who falls backward onto the pavement and can be heard screaming. Massey's wife then comes out of the SUV screaming and is ordered back inside the vehicle by Gardner.
''Ma'am, do exactly as I say or you're going to jail, too,'' the officer says.
After the incident, off camera Massey can be heard repeatedly asking to be read his Miranda rights, but it remains unclear from the video, which cuts in and out, whether the officer complied with that demand.
Roden said he was unaware whether the man was given his Miranda rights, but noted Massey could have been read them when booked into the Uintah County jail.
In the video, Gardner repeatedly states he tasered Massey because the man failed to comply with his instructions and demands.
A short time later, an unidentified officer strolls up on scene and Gardner tells him that Massey "took a ride with the Taser."
Gardner then states that Massey was "jumping around, making me nervous as hell. I was like, nah, we ain't playing this game."
"Good. Good for you," the unidentified officer says.
Massey, who was not available for comment on Wednesday, is scheduled to stand trial for the speeding ticket Jan. 14 in Uintah County Justice Court.
When drivers sign traffic tickets, they are not necessarily admitting guilt but merely acknowledging they will show up at court or to pay the ticket, Roden said.
In the event that a motorist refuses to sign, a trooper can simply write "refuses to sign" on the citation, which is then given to the driver, or they can chose to arrest the motorist, Roden said.
"I can't speculate to this incident what was going through officer's mind," Roden said. "The officer has to weigh a lot of different things."
Troopers that carry Tasers must take a four-hour certification course outlining how and when to use the devices, according to UHP's nine-page policy. They are taught to use them in three circumstances:
* When a person is a threat to themselves, an officer or another person.
* In cases where the physical use of force would endanger the person or someone else.
* When other means of lesser or equal force by the officer has been ineffective and a threat still exists.
"There's a lot that goes into it," Roden said.
UHP requires an officer file a report any time a Taser is used, noting, among other things, how many warnings the subject was given and where the electric probes hit on a person's body.
Officials are then required to get the person arrested checked by medics. Massey was later taken to Uintah Basin Medical Center in Roosevelt, Roden said.
ngonzalez@sltrib.com
You are correct. It doesn’t. I posted the wrong article. Here is the one saying that the charges were dropped.
http://www.kutv.com/content/news/topnews/story.aspx?content_id=33fb7027-f63d-4414-9a9f-f815f4d4f302
A guy was tasered to death here in Jax FL a few days ago. It was during a scuffle outside a nightclub, when the guy got combative and resisted arrest. Zap, zap, zap.
Under color of law. That's why they're called "speed traps."
Just the LEO’s comment, “he took a ride on the taser”,is enough for me to see red. He needs his behind fired!
If you look that sign was in a temporary sign in a construction area.
The speeder was mouthy.
The cop handled it poorly and could have deescalated the situation. Even when it got to the point where he refused to sign the ticked. The cop could have told him the possible consequences. That could have deescalated it right there.
Even if the guy still refused to sign it the cop has the option of arresting him or not.
There was no reason to arrest the guy anyway. He had his wife and kid with him, and was obviously not a threat or danger to anyone.
Yeah, big joke, hahaha.
The cop pulls over IN FRONT OF the lower speed limit sign, partially obscuring it, then chases down the motorist.
Looks more like revenue enhancement than concern for the public safety to me as well.
The highway patrol formed to protect the public have become the highwaymen robbing passing motorists.
BLOAT.
At this point, Massey says he thought they would talk about the circumstances.
Massey fell flat on his back as he was tased. His pregnant wife, Lauren, came out of the car screaming.
“I see this guy pull gun on me,” says Massey. “I thought it was a real gun.”>
Trooper Gardner had ordered Massey to turn around and place his hands behind him twice, and it is an officer’s prerogative whether to arrest someone for not signing a ticket.
Why didn't the cop just write 'driver refuses to sign' on the citation and give the driver a copy of it? It seems to me that the cop handled it very badly.
And the driver makes the statement that he thought the cop had pulled a real gun on him. That is enough to freak anyone out if they were in a similar situation.
The cop needed to explain clearly why the driver was getting a ticket, and then explain the consequences if the driver refused to sign the citation. The cop needed to explain that signing was not an admission of guilt. He did none of these things.
The driver clearly had a little attitude problem, but that in no way justifies the cop's actions as seen on the tape. To shoot the driver in front of his wife and child was way over the line. The video clearly backs this up. The cop needs to be disciplined.
This poorly trained, short tempered, quick to taser, rude attitude officer. Or should I have said todays average cop. This cop could have handled the situation a lot better if he had simply been a little nicer in the first place. The driver just wanted a little explanation and after being tasered he yelled out that he had never had a ticket. The thing that bothers me most in the video has been missed by every post so far. That is the fact that the cop showed no concern at all for the speeders safety he tasered him when he was standing right on the edge of the traffic lane with cars speeding by. He could have easily caused the speeder to get hit by traffic especially after being hit by the taser. I wonder how his report would have explained that.
. Literally true.
Baton related injuries to arrestees occur about 75 percent of the time on those occasions where they're deployed. Injuries to those arrestees who are taken into custody with physical force occur about two thirds of the time. The injury rate for tasers is roughly two percent.
Sorry, you are wrong, the cop did NOT inform the victim he was under arrest. If he had done so then the resisting arrest charges wouldn't have been dropped. Look at the video and tell me exactly where the cop informed the victim he was under arrest? He didn't, therefore he was overstepping his bounds. Tasers were never meant to be used in the fashion that cops are using them across the states. They need to be taken away from officers.
"So that's why I turned around and walked away"? What planet is this guy from?
What concerns me the most is not the actions of the Police, or the motorist. What concerns me most is the cities and counties that force the LEO to be a revenue enhancment officer. Yet you tools (not cquiggy) will support the city councils and county governments to the hilt in the name of “safety”. Vote the bas@turds out and change the relationship between everyday citizens and LEO overnight.
NO MORE ARMED BANDIT’S ON THE HIGHWAY. NO MORE TRAFFIC JUDGES no more stress between the overlords and the citizen!
I have been pulled over only twice in my life (so far), once for speeding (I was given a warning by a very nice MD State Trooper) and once for running a red light by a Baltimore County cop.
Both incidents happened nearly 30 years ago when I was nineteen or twenty, when I was young, reckless and stupid as opposed to my current state; middle aged, cautious and only occasionally stupid.
The night I ran the red light was Halloween and my best friend and I were all dressed up and embarking on a night of barhopping to find the best costume party and the cutest guys.
We had already been to one bar and while I do confess to having a drink or two, I wasn’t really “drunk”. But my friend and I were talking up a storm and trying to decide where we were going next, who we wanted to meet and who we didn’t and I wasn’t really paying attention to my driving. We were heading toward Towson and on a busy stretch of up hill road where there were several traffic lights very close to one another. I think I was talking and looking ahead to the next traffic light and didn’t pay attention enough to the red light right in front of me and sailed right through it.
I realized what I had done almost simultaneously to seeing the blue flashing lights in my rear view so I immediately pulled over.
I remembered what my dad had told me about being pulled over; “keep your hands on the steering wheel in plain site and wait for the cop to ask you for your driver’s license and registration. Be polite and follow his instructions.”
While I was waiting for the cop, my friend gave me gum to chew (hopefully to hid the smell of beer on my breath) and she gave me all sorts of potential excuses to give him.
But I knew I had run the red light and I knew the cop saw me so I didn’t think it was any use trying to talk my way out of it.
When he came up to the car, he showed me his badge, gave me his name and politely asked me if I knew why I was pulled over.
I answered, “Yes Sir, I ran through the red light”.
He smiled and said “OK” and then the cop went back to his car and I was terrified what might happen next.
He came back to my car and handed me a ticket that I signed it without question. I even said something like, “Thank you officer, have a good evening”.
I was so upset, that I didn’t even look at the ticket until the next morning. I wasn’t so upset at getting a ticket and while I was grateful that that I didn’t get a DUI, I was still living at home and on my father’s insurance and running a red light meant points on my license and I greatly feared my father’s reaction if his insurance premium went up.
When I finally looked at the ticket, the officer gave me a ticket for “failure to signal”. It was only a $20 fine with no points.
I don’t know why the cop gave me a break. It could have been my Raggedy Ann costume – kind of sexy and I did bat my eye lashes at him a bit. It could have also been that I had no previous moving violations and it could have been that I was honest about what I had done and didn’t argue with him.
But it’s important to note that the cop was polite to me so I was polite to him.
If the cop had been arrogant and angry with me, the outcome could have been very different.
What a shame and someone was on such a miss informing role. :)
“Such as, I have little patience for people who confuse their opinions with fact?”
Yes you are easily confused. You could have asked what I meant or somehow asked for clarification. Instead you chose to become insulting.
The cop mismanaged the situation and as such gave improper commands. The guy was not under arrest when he was tazed and had received no warnings. He had no cause to taze the guy. He also put the guys life at risk by tazing him in a dangerous area. He tazed the man because the man wasn’t dutifully subservient.
This cop needs to be fired and charged with assault before he shoots someone. Might be too late for that though, lotsa places to hide bodies out there. His obvious lies to the other officer show he cannot be trusted.
Or perhaps you think all citizens should lick the boots of the police state and be thankful when we aren’t shot on sight.
No one should ever be allowed into law enforcement without an extensive psych eval, a minimum IQ of 110, and far more extensive training. These three prerequisites alone would come closest to resolving most of the reliability, honesty, compassion, judgment, and professional issues that seem to pour out from the cornucopia of bad government & law enforcement. Our “Men in Blue” should be doing their job for reasons other than power tripping and “Payday and Friday Night”!
He didn't announce arrest. And he was not required to do so, say some.
Announcing arrest is not legally required, according to some.
I don't know the Utah law on this - do you?
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