Local cops taser 16yr old 12 times for having a siezure & "overdosing" on pot

[e-brake]

This happened in Corinth the little town between Denton and Lake Lewisville on I-35.

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedconten...8.3dae5bb.html

The agonizing burn of electrical shock.
And shouting.
And fear.
“I thought a swarm of wasps was after me,” the 17-year-old Guyer High School athlete said. “I was trying to fight them off.”
He doesn’t remember the epileptic seizure he suffered July 18, 2007, when he was 16. He doesn’t remember fighting to keep from being tied to a stretcher or hitting a paramedic.

His brother, Travis Baker, 17, remembers all of it. He recalls screaming at Corinth police to stop shocking Blake with a Taser. His mother, Deana, remembers hearing Travis crying on the telephone. “He was saying, ‘Blake is having a seizure, and they’re hurting him,’” she said. And in case they should forget Blake’s experience, they have photographs of 12 separate sets of burns from the double posts of a Taser.

Corinth police did not respond to a message asking for comment about the incident. Corinth city attorney Michael Bucek won’t release records because the city expects litigation, he said. He did say there was no internal affairs investigation into the incident. “The only thing I can say is that we believe this is a frivolous lawsuit with no merit,” Bucek said.

No lawsuit has been filed yet. Deana Dwyer sought the advice of Denton lawyer Rocky Haire, who said he has been trying to work with Corinth police for an out-of-court resolution with no luck so far. “Deana just wants them to acknowledge they did it wrong,” Haire said. “She tried to tell them their officers needed some training on what to do with epileptic seizures and postictal psychosis, but they just blew her off.”
Haire contacted an investigator with the Texas Municipal Intergovernmental Risk Pool, which insures city governments against lawsuits. Haire said the investigator told him that a check of the Taser shows it was fired 15 times within five or six minutes that day.

Mike Rains, a representative of the TMI Risk Pool, said there is an ongoing investigation into the incident, and talks have been initiated with Haire. He would not confirm the extent of the Taser use.
“I believe it was a number of times,” Rains said.
According to information from the Epilepsy Foundation, epilepsy is a neurological condition that sometimes produces brief disturbances in the normal electrical functions of the brain with intermittent bursts of much more intense electrical energy. The resulting seizure may affect a person’s consciousness, movements or sensations for a short time. A person suffering a seizure will fall down, froth at the mouth and jerk uncontrollably.
Postictal psychosis following a seizure may include delusions, depressive or manic behavior, aggression or bizarre thoughts and behavior.

Tasers can be used in different ways. A Taser has a cartridge that sends two prongs out on wires. When the trigger is pulled, the probes burst out of the cartridge and can travel up to 21 feet to reach the target. Then electricity travels though the wires and arcs between the probes.
That affects the sensory nerves, and the electricity overrides the central nervous system, which means the muscles can’t move. The person falls to the ground, briefly immobilized. Or, the officer has the option of pulling off the cartridge and simply pressing the Taser against the skin. That causes electrical pain but does not immobilize and is called a “drive stun.” It is a way to control someone using pain.

Blake Dwyer had been experiencing grand mal epileptic seizures for about a year, possibly brought on, his mother said, by a concussion. He and Travis spent the preceding night with friends. They admit they smoked marijuana from a pipe provided by one of the other boys but insist they used no other illegal substances. Blake’s blood workup the next morning showed only traces of marijuana in his system.

They were getting ready for football practice about 10:30 a.m. Travis said he saw Blake bend over to tie his tennis shoes. “He looked up, and his eyes rolled back in his head,” Travis said. “He fell over and started frothing at the mouth and jerking. I knew he was having a seizure. I was there when he had the others, and I knew what to do.” Travis said he had learned to calm Blake, who comes out of the seizures with postictal psychosis, a condition that accompanies seizures in some patients to varying degrees. Blake becomes disoriented and frightened, he said. He panics and tries to fight, especially if someone tries to restrain him.

On that morning, Travis began talking to Blake, and some of his fear subsided. Someone at the house called 911, and an ambulance arrived. Paramedics told Travis to step back, and they strapped Blake to a gurney.
“I tried to tell them that he’s claustrophobic and he couldn’t stand to be strapped down,” Travis said. “But they wouldn’t listen to me.”

According to the paramedic report, Blake was combative. He was making incoherent sounds and fighting against the restraints. He freed his arms and, still strapped to the gurney by the lower part of his body, he began flailing his arms. He struck a firefighter in the face.

According to the ambulance report, a paramedic found the marijuana pipe in Blake Dwyer’s pocket. Haire says Blake was wearing gym shorts that didn’t have a pocket at the time. The report stated that he was very combative and uncontrollable. After finding the pipe, the report indicates the paramedics believed he may have been overdosing on narcotics.
The ambulance team asked for Corinth police.

According to the police report provided by the Dwyers’ lawyer when Corinth police declined to release it, an officer Tasered Blake Dwyer only twice.
“[Reporting officer] issued a ‘drive stun’ with the Taser to Dwyer’s upper back to gain compliance so he would stop fighting with the fireman. … Once inside the ambulance Dwyer was once again issued a ‘drive stun’ to gain compliance,” the report states. The paramedic report also mentions two instances of the officer using the Taser.

But photographs taken the next day show 24 post burns, representing 12 separate instances of the posts of the Taser being applied to Blake Dwyer’s back and underarm. “The police were saying he was having a ‘bad trip,’” Haire said. “But the blood work only showed trace amounts of THC, evidence of his having smoked pot the night before — no trace of any opiate or psychedelic drug that would cause a bad trip.”

Deana Dwyer said it took several days for her son to act completely normal again after the experience. “I’m mad at him over the marijuana,” she said. “But smoking marijuana the night before had nothing to do with his seizure. He had them before, and he’s had three since.” The paramedics took Blake to a local hospital and then he was transferred to Children’s Medical Center Dallas. A neurologist who checked Blake on July 24 wrote, “Robert [Blake] Dwyer has epilepsy with postictal confusion. (Don’t try to restrain him. Talk calmly and try to guide him to a safe area.)”

Deana Dwyer said she visited Corinth police to try to figure out what happened. She is not sure which supervisor she spoke to, she said, but she was not reassured. “He told me he had a possible kidnapping to worry about. He told me he was going on vacation. He said he’d look into it but he was really busy right now. I called later, but they said he wasn’t in. “Tasing Blake was one of the worst things they could have done,” she said. “He comes out of the seizures not knowing where he is and scared to death. Shocking him 12 times didn’t calm him down. On the phone, I could hear him yelling ‘OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK’ and then screaming when they would hit him again. If it wasn’t helping, why did they keep doing it?”

Blake wasn’t a criminal the police were trying to arrest, Haire said. He was a 16-year-old boy having a seizure, and he needed help. “I have written letters to the editor commending police and firefighters,” Haire said. “I understand what a thankless job it is. I’m not trying to make their job harder. But when I saw that he had been hit with a Taser 12 times, something cracked inside. I couldn’t believe it. It is an absolute abuse of power.”

Haire said he is upset that both the police and paramedic reports stated that his client was Tasered twice when there is abundant proof and several witnesses to prove that was not true. And he believes the police should have addressed Deana Dwyer’s concerns instead of ignoring them.
Someone who knows Haire saw her plight that day in the police lobby and recommended she contact him.

“I’m trying to raise awareness. Somebody told her, ‘You need to contact Rocky Haire.’ If they hadn’t done that, she wouldn’t have complained.
“There’s not a lot of money to be made by suing a city,” Haire said. “The law is designed to make it not worth it. But we're not just going to quit on this.”

[Delfonic]

Corinth sucks ass

[PETA]

Originally Posted by e-brake

“Deana just wants them to acknowledge they did it wrong,” Haire said.

lol - sure she does

Originally Posted by e-brake

“The police were saying he was having a ‘bad trip,’” Haire said. “But the blood work only showed trace amounts of THC, evidence of his having smoked pot the night before — no trace of any opiate or psychedelic drug that would cause a bad trip.”

presuming for argument's sake that he was tripping balls.... so what? Is tasing the dept.'s response to a flipped tripper?

[-m-]

I don't even see how police are trained to taze people who are suspected to be on any type of psychedelic or amphetamine. Gee, let's see what happens when you introduce electrical shock into the system of someone who's suspected to be on something that boosts their heart rate to begin with. Grand Prairie killed a kid a few years back because of that. Fucking dumbasses. It doesn't take an expert to see that it's a bad idea.

As far as this kid goes, I hope the City gets their ass handed to them in court. Fucking pigs. They should all have their nuts tazed fucking buzz cut moustache having jerkoffs. Please be heroes and jump into a car fire head first.

[PETA]

Originally Posted by -m-

I don't even see how police are trained to taze people who are suspected to be on any type of psychedelic or amphetamine. Gee, let's see what happens when you introduce electrical shock into the system of someone who's suspected to be on something that boosts their heart rate to begin with. Grand Prairie killed a kid a few years back because of that. Fucking dumbasses. It doesn't take an expert to see that it's a bad idea.

As far as this kid goes, I hope the City gets their ass handed to them in court. Fucking pigs. They should all have their nuts tazed fucking buzz cut moustache having jerkoffs. Please be heroes and jump into a car fire head first.

cops need a versed dispensing taser.... or comparable short term acting sedative... no pain, subdues target quickly...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midazolam

[e-brake]

Originally Posted by xian

lol - sure she does

One of my co-workers is her neighbor who brought the story to my attention this morning. She actually did just want nothing more than an apology and at least some sort of acknowledgment that they did something wrong. They are not exactly hurting for money she is an executive for Sally Beauty Supply, and her attorney made it clear up front that the legal costs would most likely exceed any judgment that they would receive. She only decided to go forward with getting the lawyers and media involved after she has spent the last year being dicked around by the police dept.

The story briefly mentions:
Deana Dwyer said she visited Corinth police to try to figure out what happened. She is not sure which supervisor she spoke to, she said, but she was not reassured. “He told me he had a possible kidnapping to worry about. He told me he was going on vacation. He said he’d look into it but he was really busy right now.

what they left out was its been almost a year now with her calling at least once a week and she has still not been allowed to talk to the police chief in person, and never received a single call back.

[-m-]

Or, they could just not taze people who have been subdued, are already in custody and are suspected to be on "hard" drugs. This is just another case of Billy Bob wanting to use his cool toys on a "perp".

Grand Prairie killed a kid a few years back under a similar set of circumstances.

[HomoSexualPredator]

that would MMM too. I would probably have called fox4 or some other channel at that point.

[PETA]

Originally Posted by e-brake

One of my co-workers is her neighbor who brought the story to my attention this morning. She actually did just want nothing more than an apology and at least some sort of acknowledgment that they did something wrong.

She needed a lawyer for that?

Not defending the cops in any way but if I'm not seeking financial compensation then I'm not paying an attorney to get the cops to say, "oops, sorry."

[e-brake]

btw, if you have a reddit account go to http://reddit.com/info/6jzb9/comments/ to bump the story up the social media chain.

[BrandonWhat]

Originally Posted by -m-

I don't even see how police are trained to taze people who are suspected to be on any type of psychedelic or amphetamine. Gee, let's see what happens when you introduce electrical shock into the system of someone who's suspected to be on something that boosts their heart rate to begin with. Grand Prairie killed a kid a few years back because of that. Fucking dumbasses. It doesn't take an expert to see that it's a bad idea.

As far as this kid goes, I hope the City gets their ass handed to them in court. Fucking pigs. They should all have their nuts tazed fucking buzz cut moustache having jerkoffs. Please be heroes and jump into a car fire head first.

...............

As for the mother, if she's just struggling to draw some attention to the affair, the Internet is really the most efficient means; she's far more likely to get a response from strangers who can empathize than from some pack of pigs who care more about the jobs they do not deserve.

[Sinner]

my (limited) understanding is that cops use a taser instead of a real gun.

they go in levels of aggression.

lowest level being voice, highest being shoot to kill.
I think taser is right under real gun (almost same level) - higher than pepper-spray.

My point is he's lucky he wasn't shot. 12 burns are better than 12 bullet holes.

I don't know if he really was having a seizure or not, so I'm not going to say he deserved it or not.





don't quote me on the level of the taser gun though. I could def be wrong.

[e-brake]

Originally Posted by xian

She needed a lawyer for that?

Not defending the cops in any way but if I'm not seeking financial compensation then I'm not paying an attorney to get the cops to say, "oops, sorry."

Well no she didnt, thats why she waited almost 6 months to hire one for the case. Also just FYI to this day they have not filed suit against the city and she is still seeking an explanation from the police department on why they continued to taser him after they were aware that he was suffering from a seizure and he was restrained by straps in the ambulance. They didnt even do an internal investigation to find out why the cop only reported using the taser twice but the burns show 12 marks and the taser itself showed 16 uses that day.

They have also never answered why EMS flunkies were diagnosing a patient as "overdosing" and asked for the police to subdue a kid who was already strapped down. Paramedics are only supposed to stabilize and move patients they are never supposed to diagnose patients. They should have also been aware of his condition in first year training and especially after the younger brother told them exactly what was happening. Also the EMS/paramedics lied in the paramedic report by saying that he was only tasered twice.

[zymote]

Originally Posted by MicahB

my (limited) understanding is that cops use a taser instead of a real gun.

they go in levels of aggression.

lowest level being voice, highest being shoot to kill.
I think taser is right under real gun (almost same level) - higher than pepper-spray.

My point is he's lucky he wasn't shot. 12 burns are better than 12 bullet holes.

I don't know if he really was having a seizure or not, so I'm not going to say he deserved it or not.

don't quote me on the level of the taser gun though. I could def be wrong.

Still, there's no reason to tase him. IMO, it's made the cops really lazy - do you really think that two cops and 3 EMT's can't hold a kid down for long enough to slap some cuffs on him? Sheer body weight would do the trick.

This whole taser thing is showing itself to be really disturbing. The standards of use for it are entirely too arbitrary, and it's ripe for abuse.

[Sinner]

Originally Posted by zymote

Still, there's no reason to tase him.

perhaps... perhaps not. I just scanned the article, so I'm not one to comment either way.

Originally Posted by zymote

IMO, it's made the cops really lazy -

I dunno if I agree w/ that. As much as it would suck to be tased, at least once it's over, it's over. You get hit w/ pepper spray, that shit stays on you for hours and hours.

And, btw, before a cop can use pepper spray OR a taser, they are put through the pain themselves. Just as a side note.

Originally Posted by zymote

do you really think that two cops and 3 EMT's can't hold a kid down for long enough to slap some cuffs on him? Sheer body weight would do the trick.

I would assume they could, but again... i dunno... not one to comment. I know it can be very difficult to subdue someone that doesn't want to be subdued.

Originally Posted by zymote

This whole taser thing is showing itself to be really disturbing. The standards of use for it are entirely too arbitrary, and it's ripe for abuse.

I could def see it being easy to be abused... But it's hard to care much for the majority of ppl that get tased. Don't fight the cops. Period. Even if it's a dick-head cop, you still don't fight.

And assume we take away the taser, what's to take it's place? A night stick? Pepper spray? A gun? An angry dog?

Like my Dallas cop brother says "I don't fight fair."
A cop isn't going to fight someone "like a man" and just go fist to fist to see who wins. The cops job is to subdue someone quickly w/o letting themselves get hurt.