Posted on 02/01/2008 6:35:52 AM PST by Mr. Brightside
Taser video: Prosecutors reviewing trooper's action
By Nate Carlisle
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 01/31/2008 02:11:10 PM MST
Posted: 2:11 PM- Prosecutors are determining whether the trooper who used a Taser on a motorist should be charged with crimes.
The case of Utah Highway Patrol Trooper John Gardner is being reviewed by prosecutors in Tooele County, who will determine if he broke the law. Lawyers in Tooele County are pondering charges at the request of the Utah Attorney General's office and to avoid conflicts for prosecutors in eastern Utah, where the traffic stop occurred.
Attorney general spokesman Scott Troxel said his office has completed a fact-finding review of Gardner's use of the Taser but has not made any recommendations to Tooele County prosecutors.
On Sept. 14, in an event recorded by a police dashboard camera, Gardner stopped driver Jared Massey for speeding on U.S. Highway 40 in Uintah County. Massey refused to sign the citation, setting off a dispute that ended when Gardner struck him twice with his Taser.
Massey posted the video on YouTube, turning the event into an Internet sensation. UHP has said Gardner did not violate any of its policies.
What a mother****ing load. That officer is totally unfit to be employed, and ought to be arrested for battery.
The officer pulled him over for speeding. The speed limit had dropped a ways back and the driver had passed two signs stating the lower speed.
The officer was very polite while explaining that. He got the driver's license and registration and went back to his police car.
He then came back and told the guy that he was issuing him a ticket.
The guy continued to argue with him.
The guy then refused to sign the ticket. Signing the ticket is not an admission of guilt, it merely confirms that you were the person receiving the citation. If you refuse to sign the ticket you will be arrested and taken into custody in every state.
It says right on the ticket that signing it is not an admission of guilt, but that you must sign it.
The guy still wouldn't sign the ticket, so the officer ordered him out of the car. He led the guy back to the patrol car and tried putting him under arrest. When they guy refused to comply, the officer pulled out his taser and told him again to put his hands on the police car.
The guy instead continued arguing and tried walking away.
Before you say that it was unreasonable for the officer to use the taser instead of trying to physically restrain the guy with brute force you should also watch the numerous videos of police losing control of the situation in such confrontations, and even having a female occupant in the car come back and help the suspect get the upper hand in the confrontation.
In such a two on one situation, the suspects can very often get the officer's gun away from him and have him at their mercy.
The driver was in the wrong.
His biggest fault may have been that he was simply a stubborn idiot, but he was resisting arrest even though he was not using force to do so.
It places officers at an unacceptable level of risk to have to chase down and physically restrain suspects, especially when there are multiple suspects.
The officer also doesn't know if there are weapons in the car.
The idiot got tasered because of his own stupid and unlawful actions. He then made things even worse by calling his wife over again and again, which made the situation even worse, and put her at risk.
He should be ashamed of himself.
Instead, he was the one that got the video through the freedom of information act and put it online.
This wasn't an example of a rude and over the top officer getting out of control. The officer handled himself calmly and explained himself pretty well up until the point where the guy just ignored him and started walking back to his car, even after the officer pulled out his taser.
The hell it is, even if true.
from the video the cop did not taser the fool until he started to walk away from the cop and not obey commands to turn around. I’ve been tasered before and while the 5 second bull ride is very uncomfortable its nothing to get all misty eyed over.
The driver refused to sign the ticket. Signing the ticket isn't an admission of guilt, it's merely a means of proving that you were the person that was cited. It says so right on the ticket.
If you refuse to sign the ticket, the officer is forced to place you under arrest.
The officer ordered the guy out of the car and back to his patrol car. He told him to put his hands on the car. The guy continued to argue and started walking away.
The officer pulled out his taser and repeated his order for the driver to place his hands on the car several times.
The idiot driver continued to argue and started walking back toward his car.
Tackling the driver means getting in a wrestling match with a rather large guy, with another female suspect also in the vicinity. There is always at least one gun in any conflict with a police officer, and officers are trained not to put themselves in a situation where their gun can be taken from them.
The officer was justified in tasering the driver. The driver was unfortunately being criminally stupid. He made matters even worse by yelling to his wife to come to his aid several times, which put her at risk.
Why do you take such a long time to write SO MANY incorrect things?? I stopped counting at 10. This statement is probably the most obviously false. While true, that a person CAN legally be arrested for not signing the ticket.. a signature is NOT required... even in Utah. Arrest for refusal to sign is not common in Utah.
Both the driver and officer handled this incident poorly. But, it was the officer who did NOT follow the law, as written, in this state. Gardner breezed through the departmental review... he's probably a little more worried about this one.... at least, he should be.
Excellent description of the situation. Thanks for your post.
I don’t think the officer should “order” anyone out of his car unless the driver has been drinking. The cop was out of line to do that. He didn’t need the driver’s signature anyway.
Yeah, I’ve considered that too. A new line of Tazer-Proof clothing. lol
The idiot got tasered because of his own stupid and unlawful actions. He then made things even worse by calling his wife over again and again, which made the situation even worse, and put her at risk.
++++++++++++++++++
agree 100%. Can’t believe so many posters here actually side with this jerk who had the choice of obeying the law or not. When he ignored an officer of the law and started walking away the officer had little choice and was placed in a potentially dangerous situation with lots of unknowns, few of which take the officer’s safety into consideration.
The moment the driver turned away from the officer the officer was potentially in danger. The driver could be pulling a gun out of his waist, there could be a weapon in the car. The officer must be in control in situations like this especially when the driver’s attitude indicated that he was not going to cooperate in any way. How is the officer to know the length this driver was willing to go to?
You can't just ignore the lawful orders of a police officer.
So I may have gotten a detail that wasn't particularly germane wrong.
What else do you think I got wrong.
Both the driver and officer handled this incident poorly.
How exactly did the officer handle the situation poorly?
He was polite. He explained the situation. He made absolutely no unreasonable requests of the driver.
The driver just kept arguing and refusing to comply with the officer's lawful orders. For some reason some people have this idiotic idea that they can just do whatever they want in such a situation other than directly attack the officer, and that they shouldn't face any consequences for doing so.
It is ridicules to expect for an officer to have to grapple a suspect into submission, especially where there is another suspect in the area, and the officer hasn't even checked for weapons.
But, it was the officer who did NOT follow the law, as written, in this state.
In what way? Spell it out for me.
I haven’t been back there except twice in the last 30 years now. I went back for a Presidential Trip back in the 1980s, and I was there more recently when my son finished basic training, so I went to visit him on “Graduation Day”.
I actually was stopped by a Texas cop on the way back, because he said I was speeding. I asked him where the sign was and he said “Down there”. I said, “mind if we have a look at that sign? Because when I went past it, it said 65 and I was doing 50 when you pulled me over”.
He told me that there was another sign, so I asked him to show it to me, since I was obviously blind. There wasn’t another sign. He sent me on my way.
But, you’re right, I’ve not seen what they do in OK in many years (I was talking about when I LIVED there in the 1970s, and was stationed at Tinker)
When this video was posted earlier someone posted the statute. Paraphrasing, arrest was optional, as was signature.
I agree the cop was/is a moron.
I think the officer handled it very well. Good Job!
I was on the turnpike out of Tulsa and had passed a slower car but hadn’t moved back to the right lane last summer. I looked up in my mirror and saw two patrolmen, lights flashing, right on my bumper. I looked down and saw I was doing over 85. I promptly moved into the right lane and they went around me at over 100, the second cop pointed at his speedometer as he went by.
TEXAS DEPUTY VS NEW YORK LAWYER
A lawyer runs a stop sign and gets pulled over by a sheriff’s deputy. He thinks that he is smarter than the deputy because he is a lawyer from New York and is certain that he has a better education then any cop from Houston, Texas. He decides to prove this to himself and have some fun at the Texas deputy’ s expense.
The deputy says,” License and registration, please.”
“What for?” says the lawyer.
The deputy says, “You didn’t come to a complete stop at the stop sign.”
Then the lawyer says, “I slowed down, and no one was coming.”
“You still didn’t come to a complete stop, Says the deputy. License and registration, please.”
The lawyer says, “What’s the difference?”
“The difference is you have to come to complete stop, that’s the law License and registration, please!” the Deputy says.
Lawyer says, “If you can show me the legal difference between slow down and stop, I’ll give you my license and registration; and you give me the ticket. If not, you let me go and don’t give me the ticket.”
“That sounds fair. Please exit your vehicle, sir,” the deputy says.
At this point, the deputy takes out his nightstick and starts beating the daylights out of the lawyer and says, “Do you want me to stop, or just slow down?”
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