Register Investigation: Woman receives 4 Taser stuns in 8 minutes
Law enforcement, mental health experts take different sides over use of Taser on woman held in Muscatine County Jail
MUSCATINE, IA. — A woman with a complex genetic mental disorder was shocked with a Taser four times last month by a sergeant from the Muscatine County Sheriff’s Department in an effort to get her to change her clothing.
Was use of the Taser appropriate on a 58-year-old woman who was handcuffed or in leg shackles when she received two of the 50,000-volt jolts?
The Muscatine County attorney says no laws were broken. The sheriff has concluded all policies were followed, and an Iowa law enforcement consultant says he believes use of the Taser was reasonable.
But a federally funded mental health advocacy group whose Iowa senior staff and legal team viewed the video called the incident alarming and has launched an investigation. The Iowa ombudsman’s office is also reviewing the incident.
Five videos and 20 pages of sheriff’s department reports related to the Oct. 7 incident were obtained by The Des Moines Register under Iowa’s open-records law. Both the law enforcement consultant and three mental health advocates from Disability Rights Iowa agree that the incident, when seen in its entirety on video, is traumatic.
Tasers and other stun guns have been used by some Iowa law enforcement agencies for decades, and they are promoted as a less-than-lethal tool for officers. But the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation is currently investigating two cases in which suspects died shortly after being Taser shocked by municipal or county law enforcement officials.
According to the videos, the incident at the Muscatine County Jail begins when at least five staff members enter a cell to transport the woman, Marie Franks, to another cell to change her clothes. Franks responds by screaming profanities at jail staff and swinging her arms in a circular motion, apparently as a way to keep workers away from her.
Within 40 seconds of entering the cell, Sgt. John Crump delivers a seven-second Taser shock to Franks. Crump’s report of the incident later would state that Franks struck him three times in his chest with her swings. The jailhouse videos do not provide a clear view to verify that.
Franks ignores orders throughout the incident, first by failing to put her hands up to be handcuffed, which jail officials said was necessary so she could be transported to another cell to change. She also swears at jailers at least six times before the first instance in which she is shocked with a Taser. The initial shock is followed within seconds by another, the video and county records show.
Franks — who while in custody was off her medications to treat a bipolar disorder — curses and screams throughout most of the 25-minute incident. At one point, she clenches a Taser with her hands, even though they are in handcuffs.
Franks also launches into a long string of profanities and nonsensical rants. Disability advocates who viewed the video described the behavior as catatonic, a term referring to a stupor of inappropriate and bizarre behavior by people with mental disabilities.
Within the next four minutes, Crump tases Franks two more times, for an additional 11 seconds. As she screams, Franks challenges officers to tase her again.
All in all, jail staff shocked Franks with a Taser four times in eight minutes.
Blood from cuts caused by the handcuffs is evident in the video. A visibly shaken nurse wipes her eyes during one of the most harrowing moments. Franks also winds up with marks on her stomach from the tasings, according to jail staff reports afterward.
The video shows several jail staffers gathered around a desk after the incident, and one unidentified employee tells the others: “Good job, everybody. I tell you what, that is one psychotic woman.”
Muscatine County Sheriff Dave White did not return multiple telephone calls and emails seeking comment over the last month. Capt. Dean Naylor — the jail administrator who directed staff to change Franks’ clothing, according to a written report — declined to comment.
The department’s use-of-force policy states that a staff member should use force only when it is reasonably necessary to bring an incident under control.
Muscatine County Attorney Alan Ostergren told the Register that White has determined no policies had been broken during the incident and that no staff members were disciplined.
Ostergren said Franks’ clothing change was necessary because of an Oct. 4 incident in which she allegedly assaulted a female officer by grabbing her throat and striking her in the face. Charges for that incident were filed Oct. 7, the same day Franks was tasered.
The clothing change on Oct. 7 — almost 80 hours after the Oct. 4 incident — was required because jailers were concerned that Franks potentially was wearing items that she could use to hurt herself or others, Ostergren said.
“It’s unfortunate she was tased, but it would also have been unfortunate if she had killed herself with something she had in her possession,” Ostergren said.
“We’re not in the business of applying pain to people just to do it. We’re in the business of trying to safeguard the inmates from themselves.”
Franks was initially brought to jail on simple misdemeanor charges of emergency communication obstruction after she allegedly dialed 911 four times on Sept. 4 and refused to communicate with the dispatcher. Other than minor traffic violations, she had no previous criminal record.
Experts disagree about actions of jail staffers
The Register asked officials from Disability Rights Iowa, a federally funded protection and advocacy agency for Iowans with disabilities and mental illness, and police management consultant William Moulder, a former Des Moines police chief, to review video of the incident.
The mental health advocates who viewed the video say it reveals how law enforcement sometimes improperly handles inmates with mental health disorders.
Don Gilbert, a board member of the Iowa Mental Health Counselors Association, said he understands after watching Franks’ actions why the Taser may have been used. However, he maintained that Muscatine officials could have avoided the incident.
A better way of dealing with the situation, he said, would have involved placing her in a submissive hold, which is essentially when medical professionals place their arms around a patient. The hold would have given a doctor a chance to provide a sedative to defuse Franks’ frustration and confusion — and to avoid use of the Taser, Gilbert said.
Gilbert also noted that voice commands and tones used to direct patients with bipolar disorders can greatly affect their behavior. While a few of the Muscatine jail’s female employees in the video footage correctly used soft voices and reassuring words while speaking with Franks, Gilbert said some of the yelling by jailers likely escalated Franks’ resistance.
Gilbert also questioned why a medical doctor or psychologist wasn’t present. He believes such a professional would have advised jailers that they must use different tactics for a person with a mental disability versus someone who is part of the general jail population.
“There was no need to taser her, at least not in my estimation,” Gilbert said. “Tasering somebody who is bipolar or schizophrenic once, much less four times in a short period of time, is unnecessary. Wow.”
But Moulder, who was Des Moines’ police chief from 1984 to 2003, concluded after viewing the incident that the Taser shocks were reasonable considering the situation.
Moulder noted that the first shocks quieted Franks for a few minutes, which enabled jailers to transport her to another area and begin the process of changing her clothes.
He also said the third and fourth tases she received — while handcuffedor in leg restraints — were appropriate because of Franks’ continued resistance. Moulder noted that the metal handcuffs Franks was wearing could have caused jailers harm if she had not been contained.
One jailer’s report said the Taser shocks didn’t work. But Moulder said the last two tasings may still have accomplished some level of compliance that is difficult to see on the video.
Disability Rights Iowa has launched its own investigation into what happened to Franks after learning about the incident from the Register.
Jane Hudson, Disability Rights Iowa’s director, said she was alarmed by the video. She said she doubted other officers in similar circumstances would consider it reasonable to use a Taser on a manic depressive woman — known to be off her medications — simply to change her clothing.
“Tasers should be used only in emergency circumstances when an individual poses an imminent threat of serious physical harm to herself or others,” Hudson said.
The Muscatine sheriff’s Taser policy related to the jail states that Tasers may be deployed to control dangerous or violent inmates when deadly force does not appear to be justified or when other attempts to subdue the person through conventional tactics have been or would likely be ineffective. The policy also says a Taser can be used when there is a reasonable expectation that it would be unsafe for the officer to approach within contact range of the inmate.
The policy quotes Iowa’s law defining “reasonable force,” which states that law enforcement officers should use no more force than what a reasonable officer in a similar situation would deem necessary.
Hudson said Franks appeared to be in a state of excited delirium, which studies show can affect the heart and cause fatalities after being tasered.
Moulder disagreed with that assessment. He said the jail’s decision to take Franks to an emergency room following the incident was a wise precaution that shows care and consideration were given to the inmate’s health.
“Yes, this video is hard to watch. You don’t like to see that kind of involvement,” Moulder said. “But in this case, it appears she wasn’t injured.”
Iowa Ombudsman Ruth Cooperrider told the Register that her office is also reviewing the case, but cautioned that coming to a conclusion may not be a simple task.
“This could be a case where people are viewing this differently, and you’ve got to ask what is forming the basis of their conclusions,” Cooperrider said. “It’s why we’re taking a hard look at this.”
Video, reports leave unanswered questions
While the videos of Franks being tasered clearly show or explain much of the incident, in other places the videos leave unanswered questions that Muscatine County officials have declined to address.
Among them:
• Ineffective tases? The video shows Franks flinching, presumably in pain from the Taser shocks, yet she continues to scream profanities and even mocks the jail staff to “do it again” at some points during the incident.
Jail employee Tanya Bishop wrote in a report after the event: “The 3 times this inmate was (drive-tasered), she did not seem to be affected by it.”
If not, why did the tasing continue? Reports don’t address that question, and jail officials declined to be interviewed.
• Under control? Franks’ fourth and final tase comes when Crump instructs her to stop resisting. The tase, which lasts three seconds, goes off after at least one jail staffer says — apparently to stop Crump from proceeding — “We’ve got it. We’ve got it.”
Ostergren, the county attorney, defended that use of the Taser nonetheless. The department’s use-of-force policy states that determining when to use force is a complex, split-second decision.
“In that situation, one person might say something, and another person might perceive the situation differently that there is a threat,” Ostergren said. “It’s hard to say what people are thinking when you look at a video.”
• Fears she would die? Crump’s incident report indicates that a doctor contacted by jail staff after the event ordered that Franks immediately be transported to a local hospital.
Ashley Smith, the jail’s nurse at the scene, feared the tasing could lead to Franks’ death, according to Crump’s report.
Jail reports do not make note of Franks’ vital signs, and Ostergren said a report from the nurse following the incident does not exist. However, nurse Smith is heard on video describing Franks’ breathing as “wheezing.”
Moulder, the former Des Moines police chief, also believes the sheriff’s office should be prepared to answer key questions that would likely be asked if the incident ever winds up in court. Among them: Would another course of action have avoided the tases and have been more appropriate?
“Another one of the questions that would need to be addressed is: ‘Why now?’ ” Moulder said. “She was isolated. She was in a cell. What made them think this was the right time to take actions?”
The video shows that a jail staff member who is not seen on camera asks a question similar to Moulder’s before staffers enter Franks’ cell: Why did Franks have to be moved to another cell to change her clothes?
If anyone answered, that wasn’t picked up on the video.
After providing all public documents and video requested by the Register, the Muscatine county attorney declined to answer more than a dozen questions about the incident.
“I will point you to the definition of a ‘public record’ under Iowa” law, Ostergren wrote in response to questions from the Register.
Iowa law “entitles access to public records,” he said. “It does not require public officers or employees to answer interrogatories.”
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/app...nclick_check=1
and just so ya knows....
"If you can imagine somebody hitting you in the back of the head 19 times per second for five seconds, that's what it feels like. And boy, do it hurt,"
Knightstown Police Chief Danny Baker (
http://abcnews.go.com/US/police-chie...ry?id=21033634)
