police using tasers on people in hospital beds Prosecution's Best Evidence Is Police Officer's Own Report

Question

ORLANDO, Fla. -- For the first time, an Orlando police officer is facing criminal charges for misusing a Taser gun.



An affidavit reveals the officer used the weapon to obtain a urine sample from a handcuffed suspect, WESH 2 News reported.

The information filed Monday charges Officer Peter Linnenkamp with misdemeanor battery, and prosecutors said some of the best evidence against Linnenkamp comes from his own report on the incident.
Linnenkamp is facing one criminal count of battery for using a Taser gun on Antonio Wheeler while he was handcuffed to a Florida Hospital gurney.

"Based on what we have as evidence, this was not a safety issue. This was a compliance issue to provide urine. So that rises to a level of a criminal act. In this case, it's a misdemeanor battery," said state attorney's spokesman Randy Means.

In his report on the March 5 incident, Linnenkamp admitted to shocking Wheeler with a Taser gun twice.

"Only minimum force necessary was used. This attempt was deemed necessary by the (medical) staff," Linnenkamp wrote in the report.

"There are times when people have medical problems that we have to make sure people get the treatment they need," said Lt. Brian Gilliam, of the Orlando Police Department.

Wheeler told police he had swallowed crack cocaine, so they took him to the hospital. But Means said concern over Wheeler's medical condition was not reason enough for the officer to use a Taser gun on a restrained suspect.

"This was not within the scope of his duty. The Taser is supposed to be for compliance, officer safety and public safety," Means said.

"He's a good officer, but we'll just have to wait and see if his judgment was poor that night," Gilliam said.

The charge carries a maximum of one year in prison, but due to the veteran officer's clean record, if convicted, he'll likely face diversion, a fine and perhaps some retraining.

He'll be notified by summons and won't have to be arrested or booked into jail.

The Orlando Police Department has one of the strictest Taser gun policies in Central Florida. Just last year, the policy was rewritten and now requires that the suspect be actively resisting arrest before a Taser gun can be used.

Answer 1

http://164.109.57.223/dynamic/story.asp?category=126
If you follow that link to the bottom you will find this taser story from FOX 6 WITI Milwaukee. About half way down is the story of serial rapist cop Caniel J. Wineski. Between the two. Nothing surprises me anymore.



Zapped! Police Use Tasers On Non-Violent Suspects
Milwaukee police are giving new meaning to the term criminal "charge" in Wisconsin. In the first seven months since the department deployed its new Taser-brand stun guns, officers have used them on 212 people.

That's an average of one Taser use everyday.

Tasers are weapons that look like guns, but instead of bullets they fire wired darts that carry a 50,000-volt current. The electric shock causes severe muscle contraction and a complete loss of body control.

The immobilization, not to mention the pain, is temporary. It only lasts as long as the gun stays on. A single Taser cycle lasts 5 seconds. Once the 5 seconds is up, the recipient immediately regains body control. That's why police say they often have to use multiple cycles to secure a violent suspect.

A FOX 6 Investigators review of the first 100 Taser uses shows Milwaukee police frequently use the devices in situations that appear to pose little or no danger to the officers or the public.

Some of the more "shocking" facts we found:

--95 out of 100 suspects were unarmed
--52 received multiple Taser cycles
--16 were face down when "tased"
--15 were already in handcuffs

Those numbers appear to be in direct contrast with MPD's own Taser policy which states, "The primary purpose for using the... Taser is to save human lives."

Like Bobby Chism. He was cuffed, but refused to get in a squad car.

Officers tased Timonthy Ronan when he ignored orders to get out of a taxi.

Carnale Foster got zapped because he wouldn't let officers take his fingerprints.

And police jolted Tony Fuller while he was handcuffed to a railing in a booking area hallway.

Still, Milwaukee Police Sergeant Mike Kuspa defends his officers' use of Tasers. He's in charge of MPD's Taser Pilot Project.

"We have nothing that I know of," says Kuspa, "that would require us to actually say to ourselves, 'Well, that was wrong.'"

Kuspa downplays the wording of MPD's Taser policy, which seems to restrict Taser use to life-saving situations.Kuspa argues that anytime an officer stops a suspect from resisting commands, it prevents the situation from escalating. And that, he says, saves human lives.

Kuspa and his peers in law enforcement across Wisconsin see Tasers as a safer alternative to more traditional force options, especially hand-to-hand combat. State trainers in police defense tactics say Tasers do far less lasting damage than a typical knee strike. Plus, they say, Tasers help officers avoid getting hurt themselves, a costly problem for any police agency.

But, the Wisconsin chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is not yet sold on the Taser as a catch-all tool for police use of force. ACLU Attorney Chris Ahmuty says Tasers should be reserved only for situations where there is an imminent threat to life.

"If people are using a Taser for convenience," Ahmuty says, "that's inappropriate."

MPD is one of more than 130 law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin now equipped with Tasers. Aside from Milwaukee, Waukesha, Kenosha and Oak Creek are the only metro area police agencies that have used Tasers more than 10 times.

But, none has used them with the frequency Milwaukee has, even though MPD has only 15 Taser units for a police force with more than 2,000 officers.

Milwaukee's year-long evaluation of Tasers runs through March of next year. Sgt. Kuspa already wants more of the devices, but says getting the budget for it may be a challenge. The newest Taser models cost about $800 each.






State Documents Reveal Cop Might be Serial Sex Offender
(WHITEHALL, WI -- May 15, 2005) FOX 6 News has obtained hundreds of pages of state reports that show dozens of sex-related allegations against a Whitehall Police officer. The allegations span more than twenty years, and the state documents allege the city's former police chief knew about some of the officer's misconduct.

Last year, a Trempealeau County judge sentenced 47-year-old Daniel Wineski to seven years in prison for misconduct in office and sexual assault. The veteran police officer pled no contest to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in his squad car. According to a criminal complaint, Wineski was on duty as a Whitehall police officer when he forced the girl to perform oral sex and later threatened her with his gun to make sure she'd never tell anyone what happened.

The state's internal investigation records show there are many other allegations from women who say Wineski also had sexual contact with them while he was working in Whitehall, a small Wisconsin city near the Mississippi River.

The documents, obtained through an open records request from the Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation, claim the police officer engaged in a pattern of sexual misconduct dating back to the early 1980s.

DCI investigation reports include interviews with women who say they were still in high school when Wineski kissed, fondled, groped or raped them during traffic stops, at city hall or inside the police station.

A gas station store clerk told investigators Wineski was in uniform when he entered the gas station, unzipped his pants and began to masturbate in front of her.

Another woman says Wineski held her down and choked her while he raped her in his car.

A former baby-sitter alleges the police officer forced her to perform oral sex at gunpoint when she was 15 years old, and detectives talked to another woman who says Wineski exposed himself and fondled her when she was just 11.

Laura Tranberg believes all all of those stories are true.

In her first television interview, Tranberg told FOX 6 about the night she was stopped by officer Wineski 24 years ago. She says the officer raped her when she was 16 years old. At the time, Tranberg had just gotten her drivers license and was driving through Whitehall late at night.

"I remember seeing the siren and red and blue lights so I pulled over," she told FOX 6 Investigator Bob Segall. "He handcuffed me and then he just started kissing me and his hands were going up my bra and up my shorts, and I remember thinking 'Oh my God, I'm going to die. He's going to kill me.'"

Tranberg says the assault ended when Wineski got a call on his police radio, removed the handcuffs and drove away. But as Tranberg left the scene and headed out of town, she says Wineski pulled her over again and, this time, he told her to drive down a dark country road."That's when he raped me on the ground next to the road."

Tranberg kept her story a secret for more than two decades because she did not think anyone would believe her.

"I was ashamed. I was scared to death. I thought 'Who's going to believe this 16-year-old coming up with this story about a police officer?' I thought I was the only one," Tranberg said. Biting down on her bottom lip, she added, "He destroyed my life in one night."

Throughout the DCI investigation, dozens of Whitehall citizens reported that they had heard rumors about Wineski and young girls. Those rumors made it all the way back to the police station.

Whitehall Police officer Paul Laursen told investigators what two women had told him: Dan Wineski was on duty when he asked the ladies to either take of their clothes or to meet him for sex. Laursen told the women to file formal complaints. They did not, but Laursen says he gave then-Police Chief Larry Estensen some of the information he learned from the women.

Another Whitehall police officer told state investigators he was with Wineski in his squad car while Wineski spied on women with binoculars. The co-worker said Wineski would stake out bathroom and bedroom windows so he could watch women undress in their homes late at night.

That officer said he was "positive" the former police chief knew about rumors surrounding Wineski and when those rumors would come up, he heard the former chief respond "That's Dan."

FOX 6 visited Estensen at his Whitehall home, but the chief said he did not want to talk on the advice of his attorney. He did talk to state investigators, admitting he had heard rumors about Wineski and sexual activity dating back to the early 1980's. He said he had heard about the masturbating allegation at a local gas station. Estensen said he "had never asked" Wineski about the incident. The former chief insists -- despite all the rumors swirling around the police station -- no one ever filed a formal complaint. Estensen retired from the police department earlier this year.

Another former Whitehall resident, Terry Miles, sent detailed citizen complaints about Wineski's alleged sexual activities to DCI and the FBI in early 2001. DCI used Miles' tip to open a formal investigation into the police officer, but it took three years for that to happen. The FBI chose not to open an investigation at all. An FBI spokesman told FOX 6 the bureau shared information about Wineski with DCI in 2001, but DCI can find no record of that.

"They all had enough information to arrest him years ago," Miles said. "Instead, they did nothing."

The Wisconsin Attorney General's office (which oversees DCI) says it is not pursuing additional criminal charges against Wineski in connection with any of the other allegations because in each case, the state's statute of limitations has expired.

Whitehall's new police chief tells FOX 6 he will investigate all allegations of police misconduct -- even those that might involve a rumor.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

I can't imagine ever using a taser gun on anyone in a hospital bed. I think the officer misjudged the situation and acted inappropriately.

Answer 4

Hero cop saves driver after icy plunge!
Copyright 2006 Boston Herald Inc.
A 55-year-old Methuen woman is in critical condition at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center after her car slid off an icy road and flipped into a creek, submerging her beneath frigid water for up to 20 minutes, police said.
But she would have been trapped even longer had Methuen police officer Paul Ramirez not driven by Baremeadow Street about 2:30 p.m. and seen smoke rising from the accident, police said.
Ramirez radioed for help, then waded into roughly 3 feet of icy water to rescue the woman, police said. As he did, he sunk to his waist in mud while he used his police baton to repeatedly bang on the car's window in an attempt to shatter it.
``The upper part of her body was fully submerged underwater,'' Lt. Randy Haggar said. ``Our main concern was to keep her head above water and keep her breathing. Until they were able to get the door open, she was fully submerged.''
Fire crews equipped with the Jaws of Life arrived within minutes, cutting off the car door and freeing the woman, police said. Ramirez and Officer Tim Getchell were treated for hypothermia at Holy Family Hospital in Methuen.
Methuen police Chief Joseph Solomon praised Ramirez's efforts to rescue the woman.

Answer 5

I read a completely different story on this incident but in my experince the officer was wrong

Answer 6

A crackhead got tazed.
Moral of the story.
Don't be a crackhead.

Answer 7

I'd like to handcuff him and taser him a couple of times.