Pregnant Woman 'Tasered' by Police is Convicted

[Guest guest]

[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 hectorcastro

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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