Jury Finds Tasered Elderly Woman Guilty

[Judi Lynn]

Jury Finds Tasered Elderly Woman Guilty
By Associated Press

November 17, 2005, 11:39 PM EST

ROCK HILL, S.C. -- A jury found a 76-year-old woman guilty Thursday of trespassing and resisting police in an incident that ended with an officer zapping her with a stun gun.

Margaret Kimbrell chose to pay a $790 fine instead of serving 60 days in jail, The (Rock Hill) Herald reported for Friday's editions. Her attorney said she plans to appeal.

Kimbrell's case received national attention after she was shot with the 50,000-volt Taser in October 2004 while trying to visit a resident at an assisted-living home.

Kimbrell had been banned from visiting the resident by his guardian and police were called after staffers could not get her to leave.

The officer who shocked Kimbrell, Hattie Jean Macon, testified Thursday that Kimbrell twice pulled away from her grasp, then tried to walk into a dining area. "I Tasered her at that point," Macon said.
(snip/...)

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-brf-elderly-taser,0,4778868.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[flordehinojos]

1. one wonders who was the person margaret kimbrell was trying to visit.

(what was the relationship margaret had with that person) and... why had she been prevented from visiting them.

[freeplessinseattle]

6. doesn't matter. if she was unarmed

there was no reason to taser her.

[flordehinojos]

8. i am still interested in knowing why this visit was so important to

kimbrell, and why was she prevented from carrying on with her visit.

it would make the story more whole (or complete)... even when one has to wonder what this country has come to: arresting kids, tasering the elderly, etc.etc.etc.

[freeplessinseattle]

7. doesn't matter. if she was unarmed

there was no reason to taser her.

[liberalnurse]

2. See folks, I told you so........

Here is the original DU thread where everyone wanted to lynch me.....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1194170

[leesa]

21. Dangerous??? "tried to walk into a dining area" so I tasered her

This is just really poor police management. How many taser deaths will it take to convince you that it is deadly force?

[truthisfreedom]

3. the tough thing about getting old in America now is

that there's no respect for the elderly. period.

[liberalnurse]

4. The Officers were not disrespecting

the elderly. The woman was out of control and dangerous so the Officer regained control of the situation. Thats his job.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[xchrom]

13. dangerous?!?!? bwahahaha!

:rofl:

[Divernan]

17. Get your facts straight and learn some law.

There was one "officer" and she was a woman. Tasers are not toys. Police are supposed to apprehend, not to act as judge, jury and in the case of people who have died after being tasered by the police, exectutioner.

The elderly woman trespassed, evidently in violation of a restraining order. She also did in fact resist arrest and, in the officer's words, "got rude and ugly". That could have been obscene language, shoving. Those facts and a further description are not referred to in the articles I saw.

But here is where you are wrong about the law. The only issues before the jury, in this criminal prosecution case, were (1) did she trespass, as that term is defined in statutory and case law, and (2) did she resist arrest, also as that term is defined in statutory and case law. The fact that the jury found her guilty of those two charges is ENTIRELY, LEGALLY separate from whether the officer used unnecessary force in the form of a taser.
Most of the times when police officers are charged with excessive use of force, the target of the force HAS in fact broken some law. But in our country, at least before Bush and his Patriot Act, the job of the police is to apprehend, and they are to leave it to the courts to mete out punishment. In this case, the punishment was a choice of fine or jail time. BUT NOWHERE IN OUR JUDICIAL SYSTEM, OR UNDER US JURISDICTION, EXCEPT IN ABU GRHAIB, OR GUANTANAMO, is deliberate infliction of physical pain authorized, short of the death penalty, and even then, with lethal injections, the purpose is to kill, not to torture. Maybe you'd be happier working in Guantanamo?

That fact that the officer used unnecessary force was admitted to by the police dept. when it reprimanded her and had her take more training. Here and in the other thread you linked to above, you keep whining, to use your term, that if the officer didn't have a taser (or "toy", as you refer to this torturous, potentially lethal weapon) available, she would have pulled a gun and started firing away, in the middle of the nursing home. Clearly that use of deadly force, would NEVER have been availalble to the officer.

It is extremely unfortunate that police, fire and other emergency rescue people do not receive special training in dealing with the mentally ill, mentally retarded, and senile members of our society. In that some legislatures are making the mere aiming of a taser weapon AT a police officer a justification for that officer to respond with shoot-to-kill actions, everyone (except you, evidently) now knows that tasers are lethal weapons, moreso depending upon the physical condition of the target. Police officers, both men AND WOMEN, should be trained in martial arts and in good enough physical condition to take down and handcuff physically violent, but unarmed individuals.

[FlaGranny]

24. I have a niece who was a police officer.

She is 5' 6" and weighs about 140 pounds. She once, all by herself, chased a 25-year-old mugger into the woods, brought him down, handcuffed him, and brought him back, and without either of them getting anything other than scratches from the bushes. I believe she could have controlled a 75-year-old without tasering her.

[shenmue]

9. Doesn't she know...

that it's a crime to be elderly and be hit by a taser? She is just not up on her state law the way she should be.

:sarcasm:

:grr:

[wakeme2008]

10. What is missing from this report is WHY she was banned

from seeing this person. IMHO the Jury heard that, and peoples opinions may change if they knew that.

I lost a light friend to his second suicide both caused by his nurse brother telling him, do not take your meds. Oh his very old mother has $$$$$$ and it WAS to be split two ways after her death... Now only the brother is in line....

[DiverDave]

11. This is clearly a failure on the cop's part.

Look, I don't care if a jury thought it was right, if the cop was professional enough, this would have never happened.

I can NEVER, EVER see a reason to taser an unarmed old lady. NEVER

Oh, and the "welfare to work" comment was over the top...you owe cornermouse an apology.

[wakeme2008]

12. Like I just posted

maybe if you heard what the jury heard you would be on a different side on this.

Sidenote: the poster you tried to defend IMHO did an personal attack first.

[0007]

18. I whole heartily agree!

Know it all's, and I told you so's, are as abundant as are tea readers.

[alarimer]

19. I agree with you

Some comments on this thread just suck. I hate cops who do this shit. they are obviously NOT capable of doing their jobs and need to find something else. This torturing of old people has to stop. I don't care what the old lady did- the cop was surely much younger (unless the cop had been spending too much time at the donut shop like the fat cops around here-I doubt ours could outrun anyone in a wheelchair).

[Divernan]

23. Yes-cop was 35; old lady had arthritis & was recovering from 6 broken ribs

at the time of the incident. Also, old lady had turned away from cop to walk into dining room when cop placed taser directly against old lady's back and fired 50,000 volts. Cop never even tried to grab her arms from the back.

[mockmonkey]

14. What did the Police use to do

to disorderly old people before the use of tasers, shoot them? Being a cop has got to suck. What did they think she was going to do if she did get into the dining area? Brow beat someone? Steal their Jello? I kid. I kid.

[saigon68]

15. Maybe she was there to rifle through the depends

maybe she needed a new one herself

[meisje]

16. Some of these old farts just need a tasering now and then

[melm00se]

20. a little more information on why the woman was not

allowed in the facility:

http://www.news14charlotte.com/content/local_news/?AC=&ArID=107021&SecID=2

[Divernan]

22. Margaret(white) also said a racial slur to Hattie (black cop).

I googled the 75 year old's name and got a lot more info. Check out the coverage by the local paper at

www.heraldonline.com/local

One article discusses a lot of the pre-trial motions. After selecting the jury (4 women, 2 men; 3 black, 3 white), Margaret's atty. tried to get the judge to keep the prosecution from introducing "racism" into the trial. The prosecutor replied that Margaret had already done that with the racial slur she made to Hattie, to wit, "You ______ think you run the place." The judge suggested the jury only hear a modification, "You people think you run the place." Defense counsel said that even that would be offensive. It's not clear from the article what the Judge finally allowed at trial.

Other information included the Police Chief's statement that in the internal investigation, the police officer gave contradictory accounts; that Hattie Macon was still employed by the Police Dept., but as a dispatcher, not a "sworn officer." (But the Judge ruled that the jury could only be told she was still employed by the police dept.)

The judge also ruled that the jury could be told Margaret was tasered, but not that the police had determined it was an inappropriate use of force or whether the officer had proper training.

Other info: Pictures of Margaret show her to be slender, with stylish short blonde haircut and blue eyes - looks like Sandy Duncan' s grandmother. She has arthritis and was recovering from a fall that broke six ribs at the time she was tasered. She had shaken off Macon's attempt to restrain her, had turned and was walking into the dining room, when the police officer placed the taser directly on her back and fired it. Clearly the officer could have restrained her arms from the back with no danger of being hit by Margaret. (Arthritis & 6 still healing ribs). Margaret fell to the floor. The person Margaret was banned from seeing was not even in the facility at the time.

[Tomee450]

25. The cop may have gotten angry

over the slur. However, she should have controlled that anger. Never any justification for using a taser on an elerly person, imo. She could have killed the woman.