[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: Good background on the $2.4 million patent lawsuit that Taser International has just won from Karbon Arms, Taser’s last standing competitor in the stun-gun industry, and the man behind Karbon, Robert Grudert, who saw the stun-gun market as a great opportunity already in 2002 (with the Stinger trademark, approved in 2004). But TASER […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: TASER International says it “doesn’t settle” in liability cases, but this report shopws it has. The company has agreed to pay a total of $2.3 million in settlements to plaintiffs who had sued the company in product liability cases. But most settlements are surrounded by non-disclosure clauses. For years, TASER has battled […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : Allen Kephart died after receiving multiple taser discharges in 2011 in what was clearly excessive use of force. The municipality has agreed to pay $4.25-million in damages to his family. The coroner determined the cause of death as “Obesity, Physical Duress in Altercation While Being Taken into Custody,” labeling Kephart’s death […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : Garden Grove settles a lawsuit for the 2008 death of unarmed 32-year-old Andy Tran who died after police used a Taser on him. Tran was acting crazy, had hit someone and needed to be hospitalized. The first officer who arrived found Tran compliant, but a second fired a Taser into Mr […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : A Court of Appeals reverses a lower court judgment to re-instate an officer who last year Tased – for a duration of 31 seconds – 64-year-old James Howard, a nursing home resident with Alzheimer’s disease. The officer had claimed he utilized the Taser in an effort to minimize injury to Howard, […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : The city of San Jose must pay $1 million to the family of a truck driver who was Tasered to death by four police officers. Steve Salinas, 47, was naked and high on PCP when police confronted him at a motel in 2007. One officer tasered him 10 times in 93 […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS : Minneapolis will pay $3 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of David Smith, 28, who died after an altercation with police in September 2010. He died a week after being tasered. ($1.1m. for the family, $1.975 m. for the family’s lawyers). The current police chief says: “The unfortunate […]
[[Summary / Comments: $100,000 Taser settlement details bring on countersuit. The family of an Akron woman who sued the city of Stow after being is facing a countersuit alleged breach of contract, for the mention of the amount on a television programme, violating a non-disclosure agreement. Chelsea Garrett, a diabetic, had to be hospitalized repeatedly […]
[[Summary / Comments: In April 2008, 24-year-old Kevin Piskura tasered outside a barat around 2 a.m., while police were trying to break up a fight. Mr Piskura went into cardiac arrest at the scene and died five days later at University Hospital in Cincinnati. The city of Oxford, Connecticut, (pop. 13,000) has reached a settlement […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: In May 2011, Serena Washington was tasered in front of her children while walking to church. She charged the city of Jacksonville and one of its police officers with using excessive force and civil rights violations. The case has been dismissed wothout prejudice. The amount of the settlement is not known because […]
[[Summary / Comments : Robert “Bob” Neill more than two years ago died after responding Mount Joy Borough police officers repeatedly shocked him with a Taser, responding to a stolen bicycle report. Pôlice allegedly shocked Neill 15 times for a total of 119 seconds, the state attorney general’s office investigated the case, but found “no […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENT: The southern Utah city (pop. 14,000) paid the family of Brian Cardall $2 million as a settlement. Mr Cardall was unarmed, naked and having a bipolar episode on the side of a highway on June 9, 2009. A police officer fired two 50,000-volt charges at him from his Taser pistol. The settlement […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENT: Reporting the Maui County settlement: $40,000 to a woman who was tasered 4 times in her home in 2006. The police had claimed she was the aggressor in a domestic violence dispute. Police later dropped all charges. This case sets a precedent across the United States: tasers can only be used if […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: Hurricane city (population 14,000) has paid $2 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Brian Cadall who died in 2009 after being shocked twice with a Taser by police. The family of Brian Cardall, who had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, continues their advocacy work with National […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENTS: This article is particularly important in showing that better Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) – see section in italics – is needed, rather than taser deployment. The ACLU is leading opposition to providing the San Francisco Police Department Crisis Intervention Team officers with tasers, emphasizing that costly tasers would generate heavy legal fees […]
[[Summary / Comments : And the taser didn’t kill him? A settlement has been reached in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Brian Cardall, of Flagstaff, Arizona, who died in 2009 after a southern Utah police officer shocked him with a Taser. As is typically the case (and a condition of the […]
[[Summary / Comments : Mistaking a gun for a taser? In a long-lasting legal procedures, Johannes Mehserle conviction is upheld, rejecting his claim of an innocent mistake and conclude he had acted with criminal negligence when he fatally shot Oscar Grant in January 2009. The officer said Mr Grant had been struggling, with one hand […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENT: The mother of a mentally-ill homeless man – 37-year-old Kelly Thomas – who died in 2011 after being restrained, struck and shocked by police has received a $1-million settlement from the city Fullerton, Orange County. Mr Thomas’s father is now claiming the same amount.]] Washington Post LOS ANGELES — The father of […]
[[Summary / Comments: Should taggers be tasered? This case is worse: Dan Halsted while he was just innocently walking home. When he heard men following him, he understandably ran. “I was screaming to call the police the whole time, and I didn’t realize this was the police because they never identified themselves at all.” An […]
[[SUMMARY / COMMENT: Taser abuse settlement – but jury says taser policy at fault, not police officers’ use of the taser. An Orange County jury on Monday awarded about $80,000 to a woman who claimed excessive force was used when she was stunned with a Taser by Orlando police officers in 2003. Heather Hull, a […]