62 Year Old Grandmother Hit with Taser, Officer Placed on Leave
October 1st, 2014 by Mike VasilindaA Tallahassee police officer is on administrative leave after being videotaped using his taser on a 62 year old grandmother who appears to be walking away from the officer. The woman approached police inquiring about her daughter, one of three people being arrested.
Officers are seen telling 62 year old Viola Young..who is off camera to stay back. Then, Officer Terry Mahan approaches her, grabs her hand, and as she breaks free, he pulls out his taser. A loud snap is heard on the video.
No one at this house where the cell phone video was taken would talk with us.”I don’t want to go on camera” said witness William Gibson, but Gibson did agree to talk with us, as long as we didn’t put his face on camera. “and what did you think as you saw it?” we asked. “Ah, my lord. They done tased this old lady for no reason.”
Officers were in the area because of suspected drug activity.The incident began when they stopped three people for walking down the middle of the street…on a street with no sidewalks. The daughter of the woman hit with the taser was one of the three. She was charged with resisting arrest thus violating her parole.
Once the video was given to police, TPD Spokesman David Northway says the officer was put on administrative lead. “We are providing you with this information, along with the video, so that we can be transparent” says Northway.
A year ago, another TPD video made national news. Christina West was charged with DUI, and was then thrown to the ground. She sued in Federal court and recently settled for 475 Thousand dollars. Her attorney Fred Conrad says the video was important. “Yeah, I wonder if we didn’t have the video if we’d probably still be litigating” says Conrad.
The taser victim in this case was charged with resisting arrest without violence, taken to the hospital and released. She has since hired an attorney.
Following the brutal takedown in 2013, then Police Chief Dennis Jones resigned. The current chief, Michael DeLeo took over on December 30th, 2013.
Community activists are calling on the State’s Attorney to file charges against the officer rather than take the case to a grand jury. They argue a grand jury has never indicted a police officer for unreasonable use of force.
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