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."
Does it matter? She apparently did not sign it before, meaning that from her point of view it wasn't required. Now she was pregnant probably pissed of, apparently late already. But using a taser on an clearly pregnant woman? Thats just stupid. Especially in a situation like this, the cops clearly overreacted here.
i think its just local jurisdiction bullshit.
they have no right to force you to sign anything,
and thus no right to arrest her. on MOST tickets is a part which you sign
and mail in with payment for your fine if you would just like to plea 'guilty' and not bother going to court.
in a situation where the cop was in far less danger than he/she realised, and paniced...that could be labled as 'stupid'.
in a situation where the cop was in no danger at all, and had full knowledge of this along with the knowledge that the woman was pregnant...that could easily be labled as 'evil'.
Gender: Unspecified Location: With Cinderella and the 9 Dwarves
She was black right?....and in the US.....well ....you*ve seen the family guy episode where Peter anfd his friends are in the new policemobile....explains everything
shall we really go down this road again napalm?
it will just go
-napalm trolls (done)
-PVS flames back
-napalm cries and makes death threats
-napalm gets another banning
really...this routine bores me. why dont you just refrain from attempting to agitate others and get a more acceptable hobby, one which will not annoy the rest of us and also will not lead to yet another tantrum...just a suggestion....take it or leave it
if the cop had just abided by the law in america there would have been no situation. she refused to allow the cop to force her to sign anything. that is her constitutional right.
and for anyone who thinks the taser is 'harmless' please check this article out:
Yeah and if she would just have put a gun to her head and shot herself there wouldn't have been a problem either...
She thought it was her right to not sign the thing. Maybe she was wrong maybe she was right. But she did believe she was allowed to do it. Doesn't mean it excuses her not signing it, it just means that she had every reason to not want to sign it. And the cops should have told her more about it then just telling her it doesn't mean she's guilty.
KMC Community Forums
Pregnant Woman Tasered by Police
May 11th, 2005 03:02 PM
