The Southern Thirty Adolescent Center near Mount Vernon, IL, filed the lawsuit on behalf of three children in its custody, who the lawsuit says were tasered by Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies who had been called to help subdue two misbehaving children, aged 11 and 12. Neither of those children were among those who were tasered during what one news service described as a police “rampage.”
The incident took place on July 4, 2008. The federal lawsuit was filed in an East St. Louis court on Friday. In the suit the children are named only by their initials: B.B., R.E., and Z.P.
According to the legal filing, quoted in the Mount Vernon Register, one deputy “physically pushed R.E. towards his bunk and shocked him repeatedly with a taser. … R.E. was tased multiple times to multiple locations on his person, including, but not limited to, his neck. Deputy Bowers shouted to B.B. to lie down in his bunk and physically forced him to lie down.
“Without physical provocation and/or physical gestures from B.B., Deputy Bowers held B.B. down on his bed and shocked him repeatedly with a taser. While he was tasing B.B., Deputy David Bowers threatened to sodomize B.B. As a result of this repeated and excessive tasing, B.B. urinated and defecated himself. Deputy David Bowers was aware that B.B. urinated himself after the tasing.”
The filing goes on to say that a 17-year-old female visitor to the center, who had pleaded with police to stop the attack, was grabbed by an officer, choked, and locked in a closet.
Raw Story: Lawsuit: Cops tasered 3 kids, threatened one with sodomy
(via Atom Jack)
July 22, 2009 at 4:36 am
If those deputies don’t lose any and all chances of having a career FOREVER, justice won’t be served. The part of the story that really caught my eye was the 17 year old VISITOR being assaulted and unlawfully detained for pleading. Ten bucks says the deputies try to spin her pleading as belligerence.
July 22, 2009 at 7:29 pm
We love fascism! Yay government! If someone doesn’t do exactly what a cop says immediately they deserve whatever happens to them! You can’t take any shit from the people you’re serving and protecting, or they’ll start to think they can just mouth off, and then you’ll have to hurt them to put them back in their place. It’s a dangerous job, if you aren’t willing to go above and beyond to resolve situations by any means necessary you’re asking to get shot. And don’t worry about consequences: everyone knows you’re just doing your job.