[What a police State. What a country! Rick.]
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/223578_taser10.html
Pregnant woman 'Tasered' by police is convicted
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
By HECTOR CASTRO
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
She was rushing her son to school. She was eight
months pregnant. And she was about to get a speeding
ticket she didn't think she deserved.
So when a Seattle police officer presented the
ticket to Malaika Brooks, she refused to sign it. In
the ensuing confrontation, she suffered burns from a
police Taser, an electric stun device that delivers
50,000 volts.
"Probably the worst thing that ever happened to
me," Brooks said, in describing that morning during
her criminal trial last week on charges of refusing to
obey an officer and resisting arrest.
She was found guilty of the first charge because
she never signed the ticket, but the Seattle Municipal
Court jury could not decide whether she resisted
arrest, the reason the Taser was applied.
To her attorneys and critics of police use of
Tasers, Brooks' case is an example of police
overreaction.
"It's pretty extraordinary that they should have
used a Taser in this case," said Lisa Daugaard, a
public defender familiar with the case.
Law enforcement officers have said they see Tasers
as a tool that can benefit the public by reducing
injuries to police and the citizens they arrest.
Seattle police officials declined to comment on
this case, citing concerns that Brooks might file a
civil lawsuit.
But King County sheriff's Sgt. Donald Davis, who
works on the county's Taser policy, said the use of
force is a balancing act for law enforcement.
"It just doesn't look good to the public," he
said.
Brooks' run-in with police Nov. 23 came six months
before Seattle adopted a new policy on Taser use that
guides officers on how to deal with pregnant women,
the very young, the very old and the infirm. When used
on such subjects, the policy states, "the need to stop
the behavior should clearly justify the potential for
additional risks."
"Obviously, (law enforcement agencies) don't want
to use a Taser on young children, pregnant woman or
elderly people," Davis said. "But if in your policy
you deliberately exclude a segment of the population,
then you have potentially closed off a tool that could
have ended a confrontation."
Brooks was stopped in the 8300 block of Beacon
Avenue South, just outside the African American
Academy, while dropping her son off for school.
In a two-day trial that ended Friday, the officer
involved, Officer Juan Ornelas, testified he clocked
Brooks' Dodge Intrepid doing 32 mph in a 20-mph school
zone.
He motioned her over and tried to write her a
ticket, but she wouldn't sign it, even when he
explained that signing it didn't mean she was
admitting guilt.
Brooks, in her testimony, said she believed she
could accept a ticket without signing for it, which
she had done once before.
"I said, 'Well, I'll take the ticket, but I won't
sign it,' " Brooks testified.
Officer Donald Jones joined Ornelas in trying to
persuade Brooks to sign the ticket. They then called
on their supervisor, Sgt. Steve Daman.
He authorized them to arrest her when she
continued to refuse.
The officers testified they struggled to get
Brooks out of her car but could not because she kept a
grip on her steering wheel.
And that's when Jones brought out the Taser.
Brooks testified she didn't even know what it was
when Jones showed it to her and pulled the trigger,
allowing her to hear the crackle of 50,000 volts of
electricity.
The officers testified that was meant as a final
warning, as a way to demonstrate the device was
painful and that Brooks should comply with their
orders.
When she still did not exit her car, Jones applied
the Taser.
In his testimony, the Taser officer said he
pressed the prongs of the muzzle against Brooks' thigh
to no effect. So he applied it twice to her exposed
neck.
Afterward, he and the others testified, Ornelas
pushed Brooks out of the car while Jones pulled.
She was taken to the ground, handcuffed and placed
in a patrol car, the officers testified.
She told jurors the officer also used the device
on her arm, and showed them a dark, brown burn to her
thigh, a large, red welt on her arm and a lump on her
neck, all marks she said came from the Taser
application.
At the South Precinct, Seattle fire medics
examined Brooks, confirmed she was pregnant and
recommended she be evaluated at Harborview Medical
Center.
Brooks said she was worried about the effect the
trauma and the Taser might have on her baby, but she
delivered a healthy girl Jan. 31.
Still, she said, she remains shocked that a simple
traffic stop could result in her arrest.
"As police officers, they could have hurt me
seriously. They could have hurt my unborn fetus," she
said.
"All because of a traffic ticket. Is this what
it's come down to?"
Davis said Tasers remain a valuable tool, and that
situations like Brooks' are avoidable.
"I know the Taser is controversial in all these
situations where it seems so egregious," he said. "Why
use a Taser in a simple traffic stop? Well, the
citizen has made it more of a problem. It's no longer
a traffic stop. This is now a confrontation."
P-I reporter Hector Castro can be reached at
206-903-5396 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Discover Yahoo!
Have fun online with music videos, cool games, IM and more. Check it out!
http://discover.yahoo.com/online.html
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Dying to be thin?
Anorexia. Narrated by Julianne Moore .
http://us.click.yahoo.com/FLQ_sC/gsnJAA/E2hLAA/08NolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
contact owner: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Mail list: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Delivered-To: mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED]
List-Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
no flaming arguing or denigration of others allowed
contact owner with complaints regarding posting/list
or anything else. Thank you.
please share/comment/inform and mostly enjoy this list
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quick_vegetarian/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
