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.
“Thinking of something like “reactive armor”. “
That will go on the list next to body armor, geiger counters and police scanners, oh and tasers.
Someone else has also commented on that. You apparently can be arrested for refusing to sign a ticket, but it rarely happens.
I think you need to check your facts a little better before you broadbrush this and stand up for a cop that needs to be removed from the police force.
The officer may not have been obligated by the law to have the driver leave his car, but it was not unreasonable nor unlawful for him to have done so.
Depending on the STATE and LOCAL ordinances in those states, an officer MAY take you into custody if you refuse to sign a citation. However, MOST officers are more reasonable than this guy appears to have been.
The officer was being FAR more reasonable than the driver, and it wasn't unreasonable for the officer to order the suspect out of the car and pat him down for weapons.
In nearly ALL cases, there is not 'crime' committed, but rather an 'infraction' of the driving rules, and in almost NO case (except extreme safety issues, say ramming other vehicles or something) are you going to be taken into custody. Most cops would simply drop the ticket into the window and walk away.
You are completely entitled to your opinion of what most officers would have done when dealing with this unreasonable driver.
The officer did a good job or remaining polite when dealing with an unreasonable suspect. The officer's actions may not be perfectly inline with what YOU think he should have done in perfect hindsight. However, none of the officers actions were unreasonable.
Thanks for looking it up and correcting me. It's always better to deal with the facts.
One reason that eyewitness accounts are somewhat unreliable is that everyone sees things from their own ‘point of view’.
Now, in this case, we have something better.
Video.
The full length video is available on YOUTUBE, and I am sure you have watched it numerous times. (correct me, if I am wrong).
BUT, even with the video, no two people seem to ‘see’ the same thing. Or even ‘hear’ the same thing.
PROOF.
You and others constantly refer to Officer Gardner bragging by saying “He took a ride on the taser”.
You EXPERTS have shot yourself in the foot.
Officer Gardner says “He took a ride with the taser”.
If you got that wrong, what else are you hearing and seeing the way you want, and not the reality of what happened?
I find it funny that you and others are hinging your case against the officer based on an exchange AFTER the incident had already occurred, using LINGO that is probably a standard with LEO’s when talking to each other.
YOU APPEAR to want Officer Gardner ‘run out of town on a rail’ because of what he said.
What ever happened to FREE SPEECH?
I guess only YOU are the judge of who can say what, and when, huh?
Just because you have been cuffed and placed in a patrol car does not mean charges will be filed. I can place a person under custodial arrest and never charge them.
Here’s how it works here. I ask you to sign the citation. You have 3 options.
1.You can sign it and go on about your business and show up on the appointed day.
2.If your not being an A-hole, I’ll let you follow me down to the JP’s office and you can post bond.
3.You can not sign it and i will then place you under arrest and I’ll take you before the JP, where you will post a bond equivalent to the fine. And you’ll still have to go before a judge.
Just sign the ticket and save everybody allot of trouble.
You can argue that the cop didn't have to do things exactly like he did. However, his actions were not unreasonable in the situation.
The driver's actions were unreasonable, and stupid, and likely criminal. Likely a misdemeanor, but still criminal.
The cop was polite, and his actions from start to finish were reasonable reactions to the driver's actions.
If the driver had followed the reasonable and lawful orders of the officer he wouldn't have gotten himself tasered.
It's NAZI tactics to order an argumentative suspect who wasn't provoked out of the car? Or are you saying it's a NAZI tactic to have tasered the guy when he decided to ignore the officer and walk back to the car? What would you have had the officer do? Follow him around hoping that the argumentative and unreasonable driver would eventually get tired and start being reasonable?
Sure he could have just let the idiot go, and write it off as not worth his trouble to deal with him. But it wasn't unreasonable to order him out of the car at the point that he did.
Would you feel the same if a Rodney King cop afterwards had bragged that he just "beat the he!! out of a n#gg3r"?
It says something about the officers state of mind.
“I don’t have to show I’m right. “
Then you have absolutely no credibility.
“New speed limit, short sign, and the sign blocked by the ticketing officer’s car.”
Absolutely untrue.
Anyone can see from the video that as the Massey’s vehicle goes by the speed limit sign, it is clearly in their line of sight.
Mr. Massey also stated that he SAW the 40 mph sign, but hadn’t REACHED IT YET.
But, I guess it’s OK for you to LIE in order to bolster your case.
“why were there no charges filed against the driver for his refusal to sign?”
Au Contraire.
Officer Gardner specifically stated to Mr. Massey that he was being placed under arrest for failure to sign the ticket, and refusing to follow the instructions of a police officer.
Now, unless you have a copy of the charges filed, I see no way that you would have to know what the charges really are.
“If you refuse to sign the ticket you will be arrested and taken into custody in every state.”
Not so, many states do not require you to sign anything.
“It says something about the officers state of mind.”
Thank you for CONFIRMING what I said.
What you ‘imagine’ was in the Officer’s mind, is what you are basing this case on, and ignoring any evidence to the contrary.
(I need the Numbers to today’s Lottery. The ones you gave me last week didn’t pay off. You need to work on your psychic abilities)
The Utah State Police are using the video in training and the cop was forced to take a disciplinary “communication” course.
The cops behavior is not being used as a good example.
In UTAH, does the Officer have the option of arresting you for failure to sign?
Does an Officer of the Law have the right to arrest you for failure to follow specific instructions?
“Whats that got to do with failure to sign a citation and resisting arrest?”
Apparently some posters believe that what a police officer ‘says’ after someone commits a crime, implicates the officer in the crime.
". If you refuse to sign the ticket you will be arrested and taken into custody in every state."
This is what I was replying to.
Thank you very much for posting a link to that article.
That was a very considerate thing to do, considering your take on this inflammatory issue.
I don’t know what OP stands for.
But you are correct in that the last two words in his comment are wrong.
Still, even if a state does not have a mandatory arrest for failure to sign, does UTAH’s relevant code state that the Officer has the ‘option’ to arrest for failure to sign?
I agree. The driver brought it all on himself. Sometimes it's best to cooperate now and take your case to court later.
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