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
I wonder if Officer Friendly watched the tape in order to get his report correct. He lied thru this teeth when talking with the second officer that appeared.
Tasers were designed and sold on the premise that they would only be used in cases where otherwise a gun would be employed to take down a hostile perp, not a motorist arguing over a speeding ticket. Now, we're seeing that LEOs are getting more and more trigger happy with them, resulting in a recent uptick in taser-related deaths. Just last week, a Frederick County, Maryland deputy tasered a guy twice, killing him.
So what? The tape will prove his guilt or innocence, not his subsequent comment to the other officer.
In related news, injuries due to nightsticks have decreased.
The cops in my beloved home town of Indy are focused, seemingly exclusively, on traffic tickets. It’s ridiculous - but you can get more $$ from a soccer mom in a Lexus than from a crack head rapist.
His guilt or innocence of what? The resisting arrest charges have already been dismissed. All that remains is the ticket.
I’d say that the prosecutor—or whoever dismissed those charges saw a problem with making the case against the driver for anything other than the ticket.
http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695229509,00.html
We’ll have to wait for the civil suit, then. Just because the prosecutor declines to prosecute is not indicative of this officer’s actions.
Happy Thanksgiving
I don't think he intentionally lied. I believe he was doing that "cop talk" thingie. Cops love to tell adventure stories.
The suspect was clearly clocked before entering the 40mph limit zone.
Also a good example of how a shaved head power hungry dork shouldn’t act when his job is representing the tax payer.
Don’t tase me, bro!
It's amazing how "the Man" defines these things. "Resisting Arrest" in this case is defined as walking 5 feet away from an officer. Reminds me of the typical bullshit charges of Federal prosecutors such as "perjury" and "obstruction of justice" if you say you wore blue socks on the "date in question" and you really wore red socks--like Fitzgerald did with Lewis Libby. They slap those nonsense charges on when they have no case. And idiot minority juries will usually convict when the perps is a rich white guy.
Just heard on fox that two people were killed in the last ten days in jacksonville, Fla. That takes the total in the past year to about 59.
Note to cops, the Spanish bit is on the way!
Just another petty tyrant with a gun on a power trip. What’s new?
I’m always curious as to how many serial killers are murdering little girls and burying them along deserted highways while the cops ply their revenue enhancement trade. How much cocaine passed through this cop’s patrol sector? How many drug sales on school grounds? How many burglaries? Priorities are waaaay off. After all, the pols need the money to provide fat lazy govt jobs for their relatives.
Apparently there’s a lot of people who think this cop was unprofessional because he didn’t bring the guy breakfast in bed.
When the officer informed the guy he was under arrest, he immediately turned and walked toward his vehicle and jammed his hands in his pockets. When you do that, you can count on hitting the ground very hard. The taser sure beats getting smacked with the nightstick or getting tackled. Not smart and the officer was not in the wrong.
Guess you missed the part where it says it is not illegal to refuse to sign a ticket there. So what would be the grounds for the arrest?
$$$$$ wound
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