“The officer never said he was being placed under arrest, under what authority, under what law.
First, I dont believe that they have to do so, at least until they have made sure you are restrained and the situation is under control.”
77-7-6. Manner of making arrest.
(1) The person making the arrest shall inform the person being arrested of his intention, cause, and authority to arrest him. Such notice shall not be required when:
(a) there is reason to believe the notice will endanger the life or safety of the officer or another person or will likely enable the party being arrested to escape;
(b) the person being arrested is actually engaged in the commission of, or an attempt to commit, an offense; or
(c) the person being arrested is pursued immediately after the commission of an offense or an escape.
(2) (a) If a hearing-impaired person, as defined in Subsection 78-24a-1(2), is arrested for an alleged violation of a criminal law, including a local ordinance, the arresting officer shall assess the communicative abilities of the hearing-impaired person and conduct this notification, and any further notifications of rights, warnings, interrogations, or taking of statements, in a manner that accurately and effectively communicates with the hearing-impaired person including qualified interpreters, lip reading, pen and paper, typewriters, computers with print-out capability, and telecommunications devices for the deaf.
(b) Compliance with this subsection is a factor to be considered by any court when evaluating whether statements of a hearing-impaired person were made knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligently.
Another Utah code thats interesting:
“77-7-7. Force in making arrest.
If a person is being arrested and flees or forcibly resists after being informed of the intention to make the arrest, the person arresting may use reasonable force to effect the arrest. Deadly force may be used only as provided in Section 76-2-404.”
Since Massey was never informed of the officers intent to arrest him it seems the officers only salvation would be if he can justify the man was fleeing. If I was on a jury I would not buy the fleeing argument.
“Since Massey was never informed of the officers intent to arrest him”
Correction: You didn’t hear the officer inform the driver of his intent to arrest him (take him to jail). That doesn’t mean it didn’t occur when the officer was standing at the driver’s door, and there was traffic noise obscuring parts of the conversation.
Listen to the tape very carefully, and you can hear the driver say “No, you’re not”. What do you think he might have been responding to????????