Rutland man sues city over '07 Taser incident
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By Brent Curtis Herald Staff - Published: September 4, 2008
A lawyer representing a Rutland man who is suing the city because police used a Taser on him last summer has posted a video of the incident on the Internet that he hopes will shock viewers.
Shortly after filing complaints of excessive force and battery against the Rutland Police Department and one of its officers, Rutland lawyer Matthew Branchaud loaded a two-minute video depicting a portion of his client's arrest onto the high-traffic video YouTube Web site.
"I did it more for the public aspect rather than the court proceedings," Branchaud said. "I wanted it brought to the public's attention that this is apparently valid practice for Rutland police."
In a short written statement included with the video and in his four-page lawsuit, Branchaud contends that police needn't have used a Taser to subdue his client, George Griffin, Jr.
But Rutland Police Lt. Kevin Geno said Wednesday that officer Ed Dumas' use of the Taser was warranted - an opinion shared by other officers and the city's attorney, who were all involved in an internal review of the incident.
"There were only seven times out of 31 times that Tasers were drawn in 2007 that they were actually used so the officers here certainly aren't Taser happy or anything else," Geno said. "You have to gain control of a person whether to seat belt them or get them into a vehicle. If an officer isn't gaining that compliance, what do you do? If you can't do it with physical force, you need to resort to pepper spray or a Taser."
The 20-year-old Griffin was arrested on July 6, 2007, and charged with misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and consumption of alcohol by a minor - charges he pleaded guilty to in October 2007.
In a police affidavit filed in Rutland District Court, Dumas wrote that he was called to Center Street to deal with a young man trying to start fights. He didn't find any fighting, but along the curb of the street, crowded with hundreds of people attending a Friday Night Live event, he found Griffin.
After handcuffing Griffin, who Dumas said he pulled to the ground, Griffin was led to a cruiser. But the officer wrote that Griffin "arched his back and hollered that he was not going to allow me to put a seat belt on him."
Dumas said when physical attempts failed, he pulled out his Taser, pressed it against Griffin's hip and "told him three times to sit down or I was going to Taser him."
When Griffin didn't comply, Dumas wrote that he used the Taser.
But in his lawsuit, which seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, Branchaud wrote that the version of events described by Dumas don't make sense.
"Rutland City Officer Dumas turns his Taser into a stun gun then tasers a 140 pound handcuffed teen in the front seat of a police cruiser."
Rutland City Police chief states that Dumas' actions were "lawful, justified and proper," Branchaud wrote on the Web site, which had recorded 219 visits by Tuesday evening.
"There is no reason to use a Taser on a handcuffed teen that weighs 140 pounds, especially when that teen is not resisting arrest, threatening harm or damaging property," Branchaud wrote in the lawsuit.
It's difficult to glean from the YouTube video whether Griffin was resisting arrest since the interaction between Griffin and Dumas is filtered through the cruiser's windshield from a distance for most of the video.
Branchaud wrote that the Taser's jolt caused his client to vomit and urinate himself, although he added that police blamed the vomiting on the alcohol Griffin had consumed that night. Griffin registered a blood alcohol count of 0.155 after his arrest - an amount almost twice the legal limit for operating a vehicle in Vermont.
Branchaud also wrote that city police taunted his client after his arrest.
"Days after the incident, Officer Dumas passed by (Griffin) smiling and waving as if the incident was funny and Officer (Joseph) Bartlett laughed at (Griffin) and asked him if the Taser smartened him up," Branchaud wrote.
But Dumas and Geno remembered the incident differently.
Dumas wrote that as he led Griffin through the throng of people on Center Street, Griffin was "throwing himself around and at one point almost fell onto a young boy."
"People were clapping when we took him and his crew away," Geno said, referring to four other people who were arrested as part of the same incident the night Griffin was arrested.
No clapping can be heard in the video, although a large group of people, including off-duty city firefighters who aided police, can be seen standing around the scene.
Someone, either Griffin or one of the other people being arrested, can be heard repeatedly shouting that an off-duty police officer had punched him. In his lawsuit, Branchaud writes that Dumas can be heard saying, "I'm going to give him a little bit of juice" before using the Taser, although multiple samplings of the video on Wednesday could only pick out the word "juice."
Dumas, who couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday, and Griffin had at least one run-in with each other before.
Dumas was involved in the investigation of a burglary in November 2005 that led to the arrest of several people - including Griffin, who later pleaded guilty to two felony counts of burglary.
He was sentenced to 18 months to seven years in jail but all the jail time was suspended and Griffin was placed on suspension. He ended up serving 30 days in jail after violating his probation.
City Attorney Andrew Costello said Wednesday that he hadn't seen the lawsuit.
"We'll review the lawsuit when we're served and respond," he said.
Costello, who reviewed the internal report of the Taser use, said he was satisfied that police acted appropriately.
Contact Brent Curtis at brent.curtis@rutlandherald.com.