Police use Taser on deaf crime victim

ComputerLover

New Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
485
Reaction score
0
Deaf woman helpless without interpreter
Deaf woman helpless without interpreter | www.kirotv.com


TACOMA, Wash. —
KIRO TV’s investigative unit has discovered Tacoma police used force to arrest and handcuff an innocent deaf woman after she called 911 for their help.



Instead of an apology, she ended up bloody and in jail for nearly three days without an interpreter before a prosecutor declined to press charges.



After months of digging, investigative reporter Chris Halsne found significant discrepancies in the official police version of events leading up to Lashonn White’s arrest.



Late in the evening on April 6, White said she called for police assistance after a guest reportedly attacked her in her own apartment.



Deaf since birth, White used a special video-equipped phone, connected to a TV and a Web camera, to call 911. A certified American Sign Language interpreter on the other end verbally relayed White’s pleas for help to a Tacoma police dispatcher

“I said, ‘Please hurry! There’s a person here beating me up,’” White explained to Halsne during a television interview last month.



A recording of White’s 911 call from that evening reveals her urgency.



“Right now! This is serious!”



“She’s fighting at me, then she chokes me. She’s coming right at me!”



Computer-aided dispatch (CAD) logs show Tacoma police officer Ryan Koskovich and his partner, Michael Young, were outside White’s apartment complex in about six minutes.



It also reflects that officers received texts along the way stating, “Person doing the hitting is a Sophia” and “Vict. is Lashonn White.”



In addition, it appears from internal police records obtained by KIRO Team 7 Investigators, Koskovich and his partner were repeatedly given information that the victim could not hear a thing.



On the 911 calls, White herself made it perfectly clear.



“I’m deaf. I can’t hear if they’re out front knocking or whatever … I can’t—are they going to the front or back? Where are the police at?”



Dispatch: “They want her to go outside the front door.”



“Oh, they’re here? Okay, I’m on my way to meet them. I’m going right now.”



White showed our investigative team the route up to the front door from her basement apartment. It’s only one flight of stairs -- a 30-second trip.



To her, what happened next defies common sense -- especially, for a woman with no criminal record, no arrests and just one minor driving violation on her record.



Within seconds of running outside to meet police, Officer Koskovich pulled his Taser and fired a two-barbed electric wire into White’s ribs and stomach.



“All I’m doing is waving my hands in the air, and the next thing I know, I’m on the ground and then handcuffed. It was almost like I blacked out. I was so dizzy and disoriented,” White said.



Witnesses said White began bleeding heavily from her knuckles and the right side of her face swelled up immediately after she hit the pavement following the Taser jolt.



Pictures acquired by Team 7 Investigators also show injuries to her cheek, chin, ribs, neck and arms.



Worse yet to White was the incredible confusion that came with suddenly being handcuffed, under arrest and without the ability to communicate with Tacoma officers, who had no sign language skills.



“The next thing I know, they took me to jail. Told me to stand up, you’re going to jail. I said, ‘What? What have I done?’ I couldn’t figure it out. I had no idea what was going on,” said White.



Officer Koskovich and his partner submitted nearly identical descriptions of the arrest in their reports.



Koskovich wrote in part: "I yelled for White to 'stop' and held my right hand up to signal for White to stop. White ignored my commands.”



He added, "White was making a loud grunting noise, had a piercing stare in her eyes and had a clenched right fist in the air."



Team 7 Investigators canvassed the area near the Taser incident for witnesses because Koskovich and White’s stories are so vastly different.



Margaret Sims’s apartment is right over the spot where White fell to the ground after being tased. She said it was around 11:30 at night and dark, but she heard Lashonn screaming in pain and ran to the balcony.



“I hollered down and said, ‘She’s deaf and can’t speak!’”



Sims says she went down to the street and spoke with officers while Lashonn was still in handcuffs. She told us during an on-camera interview that the police officers at the scene admitted there was a misunderstanding.



“They had tased her because he thought she was coming at him, but what she was doing was running to him. But he said, ‘stop’ and he didn’t put his hand up. He just said, ‘stop’ and she couldn’t understand that,” replied Sims.



Another apartment tenant, Geraldine Warren, said she also heard the commotion and talked to police.


“They just told her to halt. She kept running, she can’t hear—she’s deaf. I said, ‘Aren’t you supposed to say halt like that?’” asked Warren holding up her right hand.



Tacoma police arrested Lashonn on two criminal charges, simple assault and obstruction of a public servant (law enforcement officer). Then they carted her off to jail. She spent 60 hours there – also without an interpreter- before a city prosecutor reviewed her case and asked that charges not be filed at all.



We asked KIRO TV police conduct consultant and former Bellevue police chief Don Van Blaricom to review the conflicting witness and officer accounts of Lashonn’s arrest, plus the officer’s official reports.



He told Halsne the officer’s reports “were obviously written in concert, after the fact, to CYA.”



“The question to ask yourself is: why would she run at police in an assaultive manner when she had asked for them to be there and was going out to meet them?” Van Blaricom wondered aloud.



“A Taser is a very useful device under circumstances which necessitate its use, but it’s too easy to use and frequently used too quickly. This looks like one of those cases,” Van Blaricom told Halsne during an interview.



State law on the employment of ASL interpreters for deaf suspects is clear.




RCW 2.42.120 (4)requires law enforcement agencies conducting an investigation to “appoint and pay for a qualified interpreter throughout the investigation.”



RCW 2.42.120 (5) states “If a hearing impaired person is arrested for an alleged violation of a criminal law, the arresting officer or the officer’s supervisor shall, at the earliest possible time, procure and arrange payment for a qualified interpreter for any notification of rights, warning, interrogation, or taking of a statement. No employee of the law enforcement agency who has responsibilities other than interpreting may be appointed as a qualified interpreter.”



White said despite her repeated requests to police for a certified ASL interpreter, one was never provided.

The story is complex and the officers at the scene clearly had a different point of view. KIRO 7 Investigators have tried to get their explanation for six weeks and while we've talked to Tacoma Police on the phone they would not respond to the allegations. We've also sent them emails and left several messages.

If Tacoma police want to explain their side of the story, we'll have a follow-up.

see video:
Police use Taser on deaf crime victim | www.kirotv.com
 
So the police knew that 1) the victim was deaf 2) was going to be coming out because they asked her to via the 911 operator and when a woman came running out and didn't respond appropriately to their orders it didn't cross their minds that "hey. this is probably the deaf victim" and tased her?? That's disgusting. Stupid people. it's true though, I think police officers are way to quick to use their tasers.

Totally off topic but kinda unfunny funny story though....I worked with a retired police officer years ago and he told me that not long after police started using tasers they got updates that if an officer had already maced a person DO NOT use your taser. See the original mace they had was alcohol based, apparently somewhere in the country an officer was confronted with someone on PCP, he maced them, to no effect so he used his handing dandy new taser on him, lit him up. The spark from the taser set the alcohol on fire. oooops. They had to change the mace they used.
 
Those police officers are assholes like many other officers in the world.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uNaWwZZwqM&feature=player_embedded]Police use Taser on Deaf Crime Victim - YouTube[/ame]


What Ridor9th said is that it's better to have an interpreter (CODA or neighbor who knows ASL) present first before call 911 so that way those assholes don't make a false arrest.
 
That's fucked up..Im sho' the lady didnt ask to be tased. The cops love to use them b/c they're bored. I've always wanted to get tase and laugh in their fuckin faces.
 
Jeez... those cops were ignorant.

These days, cops just use their tasers on anyone for anything... which they think is a lot better and easier than doing anything else. :roll:
 
Deaf woman helpless without interpreter
Deaf woman helpless without interpreter | www.kirotv.com


TACOMA, Wash. —
KIRO TV’s investigative unit has discovered Tacoma police used force to arrest and handcuff an innocent deaf woman after she called 911 for their help.



Instead of an apology, she ended up bloody and in jail for nearly three days without an interpreter before a prosecutor declined to press charges.



After months of digging, investigative reporter Chris Halsne found significant discrepancies in the official police version of events leading up to Lashonn White’s arrest.



Late in the evening on April 6, White said she called for police assistance after a guest reportedly attacked her in her own apartment.



Deaf since birth, White used a special video-equipped phone, connected to a TV and a Web camera, to call 911. A certified American Sign Language interpreter on the other end verbally relayed White’s pleas for help to a Tacoma police dispatcher

“I said, ‘Please hurry! There’s a person here beating me up,’” White explained to Halsne during a television interview last month.



A recording of White’s 911 call from that evening reveals her urgency.



“Right now! This is serious!”



“She’s fighting at me, then she chokes me. She’s coming right at me!”



Computer-aided dispatch (CAD) logs show Tacoma police officer Ryan Koskovich and his partner, Michael Young, were outside White’s apartment complex in about six minutes.



It also reflects that officers received texts along the way stating, “Person doing the hitting is a Sophia” and “Vict. is Lashonn White.”



In addition, it appears from internal police records obtained by KIRO Team 7 Investigators, Koskovich and his partner were repeatedly given information that the victim could not hear a thing.



On the 911 calls, White herself made it perfectly clear.



“I’m deaf. I can’t hear if they’re out front knocking or whatever … I can’t—are they going to the front or back? Where are the police at?”



Dispatch: “They want her to go outside the front door.”



“Oh, they’re here? Okay, I’m on my way to meet them. I’m going right now.”



White showed our investigative team the route up to the front door from her basement apartment. It’s only one flight of stairs -- a 30-second trip.



To her, what happened next defies common sense -- especially, for a woman with no criminal record, no arrests and just one minor driving violation on her record.



Within seconds of running outside to meet police, Officer Koskovich pulled his Taser and fired a two-barbed electric wire into White’s ribs and stomach.



“All I’m doing is waving my hands in the air, and the next thing I know, I’m on the ground and then handcuffed. It was almost like I blacked out. I was so dizzy and disoriented,” White said.



Witnesses said White began bleeding heavily from her knuckles and the right side of her face swelled up immediately after she hit the pavement following the Taser jolt.



Pictures acquired by Team 7 Investigators also show injuries to her cheek, chin, ribs, neck and arms.



Worse yet to White was the incredible confusion that came with suddenly being handcuffed, under arrest and without the ability to communicate with Tacoma officers, who had no sign language skills.



“The next thing I know, they took me to jail. Told me to stand up, you’re going to jail. I said, ‘What? What have I done?’ I couldn’t figure it out. I had no idea what was going on,” said White.



Officer Koskovich and his partner submitted nearly identical descriptions of the arrest in their reports.



Koskovich wrote in part: "I yelled for White to 'stop' and held my right hand up to signal for White to stop. White ignored my commands.”



He added, "White was making a loud grunting noise, had a piercing stare in her eyes and had a clenched right fist in the air."



Team 7 Investigators canvassed the area near the Taser incident for witnesses because Koskovich and White’s stories are so vastly different.



Margaret Sims’s apartment is right over the spot where White fell to the ground after being tased. She said it was around 11:30 at night and dark, but she heard Lashonn screaming in pain and ran to the balcony.



“I hollered down and said, ‘She’s deaf and can’t speak!’”



Sims says she went down to the street and spoke with officers while Lashonn was still in handcuffs. She told us during an on-camera interview that the police officers at the scene admitted there was a misunderstanding.



“They had tased her because he thought she was coming at him, but what she was doing was running to him. But he said, ‘stop’ and he didn’t put his hand up. He just said, ‘stop’ and she couldn’t understand that,” replied Sims.



Another apartment tenant, Geraldine Warren, said she also heard the commotion and talked to police.


“They just told her to halt. She kept running, she can’t hear—she’s deaf. I said, ‘Aren’t you supposed to say halt like that?’” asked Warren holding up her right hand.



Tacoma police arrested Lashonn on two criminal charges, simple assault and obstruction of a public servant (law enforcement officer). Then they carted her off to jail. She spent 60 hours there – also without an interpreter- before a city prosecutor reviewed her case and asked that charges not be filed at all.



We asked KIRO TV police conduct consultant and former Bellevue police chief Don Van Blaricom to review the conflicting witness and officer accounts of Lashonn’s arrest, plus the officer’s official reports.



He told Halsne the officer’s reports “were obviously written in concert, after the fact, to CYA.”



“The question to ask yourself is: why would she run at police in an assaultive manner when she had asked for them to be there and was going out to meet them?” Van Blaricom wondered aloud.



“A Taser is a very useful device under circumstances which necessitate its use, but it’s too easy to use and frequently used too quickly. This looks like one of those cases,” Van Blaricom told Halsne during an interview.



State law on the employment of ASL interpreters for deaf suspects is clear.




RCW 2.42.120 (4)requires law enforcement agencies conducting an investigation to “appoint and pay for a qualified interpreter throughout the investigation.”



RCW 2.42.120 (5) states “If a hearing impaired person is arrested for an alleged violation of a criminal law, the arresting officer or the officer’s supervisor shall, at the earliest possible time, procure and arrange payment for a qualified interpreter for any notification of rights, warning, interrogation, or taking of a statement. No employee of the law enforcement agency who has responsibilities other than interpreting may be appointed as a qualified interpreter.”



White said despite her repeated requests to police for a certified ASL interpreter, one was never provided.

The story is complex and the officers at the scene clearly had a different point of view. KIRO 7 Investigators have tried to get their explanation for six weeks and while we've talked to Tacoma Police on the phone they would not respond to the allegations. We've also sent them emails and left several messages.

If Tacoma police want to explain their side of the story, we'll have a follow-up.

see video:
Police use Taser on deaf crime victim | www.kirotv.com

It said nothing about the person that was attacking the victim , I hope they where arrested. This sound like the 911 person did not tell the cops the victim was deaf , I have a feeling the cops will get away with this as always.
 
ah of course.... both Tacoma and Seattle PD have been in spotlights many times for police brutality and excessive police force. good riddance. these police departments need some cleaning up.
 
Not all Police Officers are bad. I know several officers in my hometown that have learned ASL because they feel so strongly that it is their duty to protect everyone, and they know the disadvantaged position that Deaf and HoH individuals are in.

Their are bad people in every profession. In this situation, the officers neglected their training and completely violated her rights. She was attacked twice - and this story is so heart breaking - she called for help and was beaten by those that were supposed to serve and protect. :( really sad.
 
Lots of police suck big time. Ibhad a recent event where I called the police and got ignored by them. I repeatedly asked for a terp or for them to at least write to mebut. Got ignored. I give up on them. I will handle anything else myself. Fucking cops
 
that one most awful things i read,i hope cops get sack and she get big compensation
 
I notice that it becomes common anywhere. When will they learn? Even her neighbors who witnessed it yelled "She's deaf" but the officers failed to listen. The witnesses said that the officer didn't put his hand up at all to tell the deaf victim to slow down or stop. What's more, they failed to provide an interpreter while she was in jail for three days. Oh, I can smell a big lawsuit.

I wonder if they have received the video training like this Deaf Sensitivity Training Video for Police Officers. Every officers must learn about Deaf culture so incidents like this will not happen again. NAD must speak out NOW.
 
This would not happen in Houston. I know it would not because we have P.I.P. and all officers go through training for conduct with the deaf community. Our dispatches have a coded phases separate for if the deaf is an assumed victim or an assumed suspect. Each events is treated different because of circumstances and the results are shared (with protection of the names of all persons involved) with the P.I.P. group for evaluation. This not only protects and helps the deaf community but also empowers the officers learning experience. The deaf communities all over America can and should set up a P.I.P. organization, if each city did all deaf in America benefit.
 
Not all Police Officers are bad. I know several officers in my hometown that have learned ASL because they feel so strongly that it is their duty to protect everyone, and they know the disadvantaged position that Deaf and HoH individuals are in.

Their are bad people in every profession. In this situation, the officers neglected their training and completely violated her rights. She was attacked twice - and this story is so heart breaking - she called for help and was beaten by those that were supposed to serve and protect. :( really sad.

Yeah , that is true , not all cops are bad , but some cities are known for having cops that abuse their power. I think when the woman was running toward the cop he had no idea if she was the victim or the attacker. I feel there may had been a break down on communication between the 911 operator and the polices and the poor woman became a victim because of this . Poor communication has cost innocent people their life . I hope something is learned is from this so it will not happen again.
 
Back
Top