Tasers - the ugly truth...

This is just a seemingly-random collection of taser stories that have come across the news wire over the past few weeks.


Palo Alto police officers illegally provoked a March 15 confrontation in which they stunned a transient man with tasers, a judge said Wednesday in dismissing prosecutors' case against Joseph Ciampi. He was charged with resisting an officer in the line of duty, a felony. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Thang Nguyen Barrett ruled that the officers had no right to force Ciampi out of the van he was living in by pretending to call a tow truck. That unlawful trick, he said, tainted their actions in the confrontation that followed. While police are allowed to use deception in certain circumstances, Barrett said, it wasn't justified in this case because Ciampi wasn't suspected of any legitimate crime. [LINK][LINK]


WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) -- Charges have been dropped against a man who was subdued with a taser at his father's funeral. The Star-News of Wilmington reported Thursday that the woman who took out a warrant against Gladwyn Taft Russ III did not appear in court on Monday. Glenda L. Sellars had taken out the warrant in August, claiming Russ had threatened to kill her. Assistant District Attorney Chris Flynn said there was no evidence except what Sellars had said. Russ was a pallbearer and was loading his father's casket into a hearse last month when undercover deputies approached him. Relatives said two deputies dressed in coats and ties grabbed Russ and kneed him in his back before using a taser on him. Five sheriff's deputies were disciplined by New Hanover County Sheriff Sid Causey for their actions. [LINK]


ADVANCE, N.C. -- A man who deputies shocked with a taser as his horse barn burned will get $12,000 in a settlement. Harold Smith accused the deputies of pushing him to the ground and shocking him twice as fire destroyed his barn and five of his horses in late September. The county completed the settlement recently, and neither side admitted any wrongdoing. Smith claimed he was running toward the burning barn to tell firefighters the best way to get around the property. Deputies said they were trying to protect Smith by preventing him from getting any closer to the burning building. [LINK]


According to an incident report, a deputy used his taser on James Parker, an associate pastor at the Cathedral of Faith, after he refused to comply with repeated orders. Some witnesses called the deputy's actions unfair and unprovoked. [LINK]


Any pro-taser fanboys left out there? LOL.