Lawsuit: Police Tased teen suffering seizure

[GMDino]

http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20150713/NEWS/150719929

Quote:A Rainbow City woman filed suit in federal court alleging police used Tasers on her and her teenage daughter after the girl suffered a seizure at a concert Jan. 16 at Center Stage, and her mother came to help her.

The lawsuit lists Rainbow City, Police Chief Greg Carroll, officers George Morris, James Fazekas and Justin Gilliland, and two unnamed officers; the city of Gadsden and three unnamed Gadsden police officers; and Center Stage as defendants.

The lawsuit claims Rainbow City officers Tased a 49-year-old and her minor daughter, and that Gadsden officers failed to stop them. The woman’s minor daughter is not identified by name in the lawsuit. Because identifying the mother would identify the daughter as well, her name is not being published here.

Rainbow City Attorney Jim Turnbach said he has not yet seen the lawsuit, but was somewhat familiar with the allegations made in a claim against the city. He said based on what he knows of the situation, he expects the city to vigorously defend against those allegations.

Gadsden City Attorney Lee Roberts said he has not seen the lawsuit and could not comment on its claims.

The filing claims there was no threat to officers; and that the girl was suffering a medical emergency and her mother was lying face down with her arms secured behind her back when the Tasers were used.

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During the concert, the performer left the stage and went into the crowd, causing what the lawsuit refers to as a “stampede.” The girl was knocked to the floor, and the stress and fear of being trampled caused a grand mal seizure. When she had the seizure, other patrons parted from around her and she was left to seize on the floor.

Her sister told Center Stage employees she had a medical condition that causes seizures. According to the suit, an employee picked her up from the floor and carried her over his shoulder to the lobby, then “unceremoniously dumped” her onto the floor, where the police officers encountered the girl.

According to the lawsuit, the girl suffered a second grand mal seizure in the lobby, and her sister again told employees of her medical condition and implored them to help and to call for medical help.

About that time, the mother arrived in the lobby in pajamas and a T-shirt, having been alerted by her daughter. She tried to go the aid of her daughter, who was being held on the ground at five different points of her body by defendants named in the lawsuit. A Center Stage employee had the girl in a chokehold around her neck, the suit says.

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A Rainbow City officer “body checked” the mother onto the floor of the lobby, the lawsuit claims, knocking her to her knees, where he restrained her with her arms behind her back and instructed another officer — by saying “get her” — to use a Taser on her. The officer hesitated, the suit contends, and the officer restraining her said, “Do it.” The other officer employed the Taser into the woman’s back.

As her mother was being Tased, the daughter was coming out of her second seizure and tried to raise her head to seek what was happening to her mother. While she was being restrained, another officer employed the Taser into her sternum area twice. She was Tased for a third time and suffered a third seizure, then lost consciousness, awakening later in an ambulance.

According to the lawsuit, gauze placed in the girl’s mouth by a Center Stage employee had been replaced by medical tape over her mouth with a surgical mask over it. Seizures cause the girl to excrete more than normal saliva, and the presence of the tape and the mask caused her to experience the sensation of drowning.

The woman was arrested for disorderly conduct and taken to jail, and alleges that she was not allowed to check on her daughter’s welfare and was instead ridiculed and threatened with losing custody of her children.

The lawsuit says her minor daughter was taken, “bound and gagged,” to a local hospital. She was left restrained and gagged in the common area of the hospital, the suit claims, while Rainbow City and Gadsden officers made jokes about her and to her about her mother’s arrest, and threatened to have her committed to a mental facility.

When I was a freshman in college the guy who lived across the hall would have these seizures where his eyes would glass over and he would drool and just sort of wander around. When he was in that state he would not go around people and became fearful if someone tries to corral him in.

During a campus event he went into one and an RA and another school rep were trying to wrestle him to the ground but luckily I was there and yelled that he has seizures and he wasn't on drugs so they let him go. But had I not been there it would have been a lot worse.

Its hard to tell the difference unless someone tells you. And then, as an officer, do you believe it?

That's a tough call.

If everything else is right and they were told it seems it was handled very poorly.