Deputy sued for using stun gun on woman

WTHR ^

[NJ_gent]

"Read the link...found only that the police stopped a "princess" who apparently mistook the situation for a game."

Who felt entitled to reach into her vehicle for a dark metallic object after becoming combative with two police officers during a drunk stop.

[paul51]

Whether she was guilty or not is irrelevant

Not in the eyes of a jury.

[JTN]

Read the link...

Then I'm a bit baffled that you could post this:

Sorry, I don't believe for a minute that the police wanted to draw this woman's blood.

After reading this:

After cooperating with a series of physical sobriety tests and giving inconclusive breath tests, the trouble begins when Lockhart, who is more 6 feet tall and weighs more than 250 pounds, tells Marshall that she will be taken to jail if she does not submit to a blood draw.

You just have an agenda of defending the cop, who apparently is your brother.

[JTN]

Re: the BAC. The test was just as likely measuring her flu medication as any alcohol. Her BAC also likely increased during the interval between the stop and the test.

[JTN]

Not in the eyes of a jury.

The jury was not considering the police officers' actions, but hey, keep bringing it up. Maybe it will become relevant.

[NJ_gent]

The article's author seems to misunderstand one critical point from the words exchanged:

""Do you want to take a chemical test?" he asks. "I don't know what that means," she replies."

She didn't know she was being asked to give a blood test, and she didn't give him time to explain it before she became physically combative.

[yer gonna put yer eye out]

"Then I'm a bit baffled that you could post this:

Sorry, I don't believe for a minute that the police wanted to draw this woman's blood.

After reading this:


After cooperating with a series of physical sobriety tests and giving inconclusive breath tests, the trouble begins when Lockhart, who is more 6 feet tall and weighs more than 250 pounds, tells Marshall that she will be taken to jail if she does not submit to a blood draw.
You just have an agenda of defending the cop, who apparently is your brother."

You're not any more baffled than I am.
I still don't understand how anyone can take the side of a CONVICTED drunk driver and her lawyer, (who by the way may be a wee bit prejudiced), over a duly sworn jury and police car cam....but then again that's the wonderful thing about America...we're ALL still welcome to our own take on things.

[JTN]

Also, she was only given the blood test after other means showed that she was not drunk. BAC, after all, only tells us the BAC, not whether or not the person is intoxicated.

[paul51]

It's relevant because a jury will consider it and decide she got what she asked for. Drunk, belligerent, combative, etc. The cop may have goner over board but she opened the door. sorry you can't see that.

[NJ_gent]

"Re: the BAC. The test was just as likely measuring her flu medication as any alcohol. Her BAC also likely increased during the interval between the stop and the test."

Of course, we're right back to the lawyerspeak.

My client was not drunk, your honor!
The test was done with poor procedures, so the results were wrong!
Even if the procedures were ok, it took too long to give the test, so the results are wrong!
Even if that didn't affect the results and the procedures were fine, it was just my client's cough medicine!

In other words, it's physically impossible for any blood test, any time, anywhere, with any cop, with any physician, with any person to yield an accurate positive in the mind of a defense attorney.

"Her BAC also likely increased during the interval between the stop and the test."

Sure, if she has a liver that produces alcohol. If this turns out to be the case, perhaps she could get a job with Anheuser-Busch.

[JTN]

I still don't understand how anyone can take the side of a CONVICTED drunk driver and her lawyer, (who by the way may be a wee bit prejudiced), over a duly sworn jury and police car cam....

Again, the jury was not considering the officers' actions. The were looking at evidence in a criminal trial. I'm not taking the word of a "CONVICTED drunk driver", I'm taking the word of a videotape which shows a cop tasering a woman who is not a threat.

[JTN]

Sure, if she has a liver that produces alcohol. If this turns out to be the case, perhaps she could get a job with Anheuser-Busch.

Alcohol is not absorbed into the bloodstream the second you take a drink. It is absorbed slowly, sometimes over the course of hours.

[untrained skeptic]

2. She was given a series of roadside sobriety tests which she passed.

That's not what the article says:

After cooperating with a series of physical sobriety tests and giving inconclusive breath tests, the trouble begins when Lockhart, who is more 6 feet tall and weighs more than 250 pounds, tells Marshall that she will be taken to jail if she does not submit to a blood draw.

It said she cooperated with the physical sobriety tests. It does not say that she passed them.

3. She was then given a series of breath tests which were inconclusive (meaning she passed).

What inconclusive usually means with a breath test is that the subject did not cooperate well enough to get a good reading. That doesn't mean she passes, that means that they are forced to take her to have blood drawn to test her blood alcohol level, or place her under arrest if she refuses.

4. The police then tell her that she must submit to a blood draw (right then and there) or go to jail.

Well, they don't take the blood right then and there, but the law does require you to submit to the tests. The tests have to be administered within a certain amount of time. The officers don't have the option of letting an uncooperative subject call their lawyer and stall.

The infuriating video is at the Indystar link.

I watched the video. She was resisting arrest. A TASER is a lot less damaging method of getting hadcuffs on someone resisting than overwhelming physical force. A second of pain with no lasting damage is better than ending up bruised and battered.

His announcing "taser time" sounds bad, but it could simply mena that he was giving her fair warning that she needed to quit resisting arrest or he would be required to use force.

When the eventually had her under arrest and her blood was tested, her blood alcohol was still up at .10 percent.

Your characterization of the situation doesn't match the story I'm reading in the article.

It seems much more likely that the physical sobriety tests led the officers to give her the breath test, but they were unable to get an accurate reading either because she didn't cooperate or because the equipment didn't function properly.

She was legally too drunk to drive. It sounds like she just didn't want to fact the consequences of her own actions.

She refused to comply with the lawful orders of the officers. She resisted arrest. She needs to take responsibility for her actions and accept the consequences.

[jaydubya2]

I agree with much of your assessment. But she was only 5-foot-5, 110-pounds. I think the two, over two-hundred pound officers could have easily manhandled her. And they did when they pulled her from the car and moved her to the trunk area. She was not obeying them and resisting. The tazer probably was not necessary but the cops should not get sued over this. She was clearly in the wrong.

[NJ_gent]

"Also, she was only given the blood test after other means showed that she was not drunk."

This is unsupported by the information in the article. It said she "cooperated" with a physical sobriety test, and that a breath test was "inconclusive". If you can show one place in the article that says they had no reason to believe she may have been intoxicated, please do quote it here.

"BAC, after all, only tells us the BAC, not whether or not the person is intoxicated."

Using this logic, states should remove BAC from their drunk driving laws. After all, your BAC doesn't tell you anything, right? You may want to check here.

[yer gonna put yer eye out]

Ya know, the phrase "arm chair quarterback" keeps pushing it's way into my thoughts when I read your appraisal of this whole situation.
And unfortunately for other folks, whose lives are on the line protecting peace-loving people everyday, there are actually other people who will bite on your neurotic excitement at a lousy traffic stop...
Please...find some medication that doesn't disagree with your stomach and stay on it...

[JTN]

I watched the video.

Apparently not. If you had you would have seen that the officers already had her under control when the tasering began.

She needs to take responsibility for her actions and accept the consequences.

As does the thug officer in this case.

[E.Allen]

What state has the police do the blood draw?? I've never heard of that.

It is standard to ask the suspect to submit to a blood (or breath) test at the scene and then transport them to a hospital (for blood) or police station (for breath) testing.

Some people refuse to be tested, but most states treat that as an additional crime with a mandatory fine and suspension, and they are still charged with the DUI based on testimony.

While you are being arrested, there is NO I repeat NO right to a phone call. That comes after you are in custody and being processed. Anything you do that is different from the officer's commands after he tells you you are under arrest can be considered resisting arrest.

[School of Rational Thought]

"It's hard to understand people who can't give up their need to be in control of everything around them for 10 minutes when stopped by the police.
Sure would save themselves a lot of time and trouble"

So some cop was to take a sample of your blood for a reason you believe is baseless and you would simple comply because it is the easiest thing to do?

Since when can a cop forcibly take blood?

From the original post, the situation appears to be a cop with an attitude and judgement problem.

Sometimes folks need to contest the government.

[NJ_gent]

The liver processes (breaks down) alcohol at the rate of roughly 1 'drink' per hour. The lungs exhale roughly 5% of the alcohol you ingest, and the kidneys eliminate roughly the same amount through urine. Unless the officers were giving her beer on the way to the station, it's extremely unlikely her BAC would even be maintained over any significant period of time.

She dropped a .10 on the blood test. She was drunk. 12 jurors knew she was drunk, and convicted her of being drunk. Get over it.