NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 13, 2008
Ex-Police Officer Indicted In Taser Death
Former Louisiana Police Officer Accused Of Repeatedly Jolting Handcuffed Man
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The Winn Parish grand jury also indicted former Winnfield police officer Scott Nugent on a charge of malfeasance in office stemming from the Jan. 17 death of Baron Pikes, 21.
Pikes was shocked nine times with a 50,000-volt Taser as he was arrested on a drug possession warrant in January, authorities said. Winn Parish District Attorney Chris Nevils said Nugent broke the law when he "unnecessarily" used the Taser on Pikes multiple times and failed to get him medical attention "when it was apparent he needed it."
"In a civilized society, abuse by those who are given great authority cannot be tolerated," Nevils said in a statement.
Nugent, who is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 21, faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of the manslaughter charge. The malfeasance charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Nugent was fired but is appealing his dismissal. Phillip Terrell, Nugent's lawyer, has said his client followed department protocols and didn't use excessive force.
After the panel's decision, Terrell said the grand jury has only heard prosecutors' side of the story. "It now comes time for us to be able to present our side of the story," he said.
Since the grand jury's decision Wednesday, Terrell said Nugent had surrendered to sheriff's deputies and was booked on the two charges. He was released from jail after posting $45,000 bond, Terrell said.
The parish's coroner, Dr. Randolph Williams, ruled in June that Pikes' death was a homicide. Williams said he consulted with two other coroners, and both agreed that Pikes died of cardiac arrest caused by the Taser shocks.
Terrell disagreed with the coroner's conclusion but said he hasn't pinpointed the cause of death. "We haven't been allowed to see the autopsies yet," he said.
Carol Powell Lexing, a lawyer for Pikes' family, called the indictments "just one step toward justice."
Anger over Pikes' death has threatened to inflame racial tensions in Winnfield, where the population of roughly 5,800 is evenly divided between black and white residents. Pikes was black; Nugent is white.
The episode also has drawn comparisons to the so-called "Jena Six" case, which thrust a neighboring city in the national spotlight.
Winnfield is about 40 miles northwest of Jena, the site of a massive civil rights protest last year. Thousands of demonstrators gathered there to protest criminal cases against six black teenagers charged with beating a white student at a high school.
State Sen. Gerald Long, a Winnfield native and third cousin of legendary former Gov. Huey Long, expressed confidence that community leaders won't allow the fallout from Pikes' death to divide the city along racial lines.
"We pray that it will not become a spectacle comparable to what took place in Jena," Long said. "Is it an explosive situation that can create a backlash? Sure, but that's not what I see."
Lawrence Spikes, a minister who ran unsuccessful campaigns for mayor of Winnfield in 2002 and 2006, said Pikes' death reinforces his view that abuse of power is a persistent problem in the city.
"This has been going on for a while," said Spikes, who is black. "It's not just blacks being abused. It's whites being abused, too."
On Monday, the mother of Pikes' 4-year-old son filed a wrongful-death suit in federal court against city officials, Nugent and Taser International. The suit accuses city officials of civil rights violations in Pikes' death.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Posted by patriot12436
If you were a black person living in the Katrina debacle, you would have no faith in the corrupt system. Black people get murdered by white cops everyday and escape justice.
I was living in San Antonio when they brought 14000 refugees from Katrina. They received free rent, money and utilities for a year. My peaceful neighborhood got to the point you didn''t go out after dark and if you did you carried a gun. Our murder rate increased 39% the first year and so did all other criimes. My only regret is that there were survivors from New Orleans. I moved out of Texas.
You say black people are murdered by white cops every day. Blacks also kill more blacks than anyone else and being 13% OF the population they commit 60 % of the crimes in the U.S.
Posted by patriot12436
Yeah..... sure you did. What a crock of garbage. Were you some sort of a GOP Panty Waist that refused to stand up for yourself or what?
I have been living in Thailand for the last 18 months. Save your stupid comments until you can voice them to a persons face and when you have the b*lls to do so.
I''ve read your posts for a while and can say you are the type of person who any prosecutor would love to have on his or her jury WHEN the criminal is a cop. We have to wait until the facts come out? The facts are out. He tased him several times AFTER he was already handcuffed. You should really look inside yourself, because you are EXTREMELY biased, even if you probably will not admit to it.
The best example to give you is i will always look at the evidence presented. If i had been on the OJ case i would have voted not guilty based on th evidence presented. Personally i think he committed the murders, but i would only convict on evidnce. Yes he was handcuffed but the story says he continued to fight. I have ben in that situation and know an individual mentally deranged or high on drugs can be formidible even when cuffed. As for biased, i also admit that. 15 years in law enforcement dealing with the dregs of society seem to have that effect on many of us. I however never abused a suspect, saw another officer abuse a suspect or would have toleratred such treatment. What i am saying here is i would like to know what really happened before forming my opinion as to who should be punished for what.
I have been excused from jury duty several times because i believe in the death penalty. The defense doesn''t like that attitude.
Posted by patriot12436 at 04:58 AM
Ah, what a shame!
Posted by patriot12436 at 04:56 AM : Aug 14, 2008
While I won''t dispute what you say, I have friends who are cops and the stories they tell sound nothing like the apparently sheltered job experiences you''ve had.
They speak of outright torture, of purposely breaking arms in the act of cuffing a suspect, letting the police dog gnaw on a suspect for too long, not too mention making stuff up to bolster their side of events, stacking charges by outright lying to get the "perp" behind bars, and falsifying the record to reflect untruths.
We know this kind of BS goes on, by acting oblivious to it, you only reinforce the fact that the police can''t be trusted. I personally think double or triple punishments for cops who do wrong should be the norm, not a slap on the wrist.
One last thing, it says something very interesting about a person''s mental state that they will repeatedly place themselves in danger, as most folks avoid it like the plague.
Never going to happen that I will let others tell me how to live, I don''t care if it is the second coming of Jesus, I live my life according to what is best for me and mine, and not, with all due respect for him, Mr. Cosby. Not the president, not the preacher, not even my own parents, no one.
As long as I stay within the boundaries of on paper, printed in black and white law, no one tells me how to live my life, and if my choices take me outside those boundaries, I will accept the appropriate, on paper, written in black and white legal sanctions, and no more.
I have had more than one experience of being stopped and abused by police for the crime of driving home from work late night, in a car containing musical instruments. I was not speeding, and I never drink alcohol, not even beer.
America will never, despite the efforts of the "social conservatives", conform to the ideas of a small minority that arrogantly presumes themselves to be arbiters of good and bad behavior. I have no wish to "be like you", I am already something better.
I worked law enforcement in Lousiana when it was the murder capital of the U.S., i also worked law enforcement in Missouri so i did not work a sheltered job. Maybe i was lucky and the officers i worked with were the good guys. I can only say what i know. I do know the criminals we arrested over and over were career criminals and would do anything. I never hads a desire to bust any heads or shoot anyone unnecessarily.
I actually think it was a shame as i would have conducted myself to find guilty or innocent based on the facts, not whether i thought the person was guilty.
I have no idea what drugs you are using or where you get your information but it is off the wall. I have read the constitution. A police officer is authorized to use necessary force to prevent a crime up to and including deadly force. Deadly force can be applied in a situatio9n where the officer feels that the threat of death is imminent. This is the only circumstances that deadly force can be legally used. This in in cases of self defense or in the defense of another person.
Posted by mcv57 at 12:04 AM : Aug 14, 2008"""
Fella, I''ve been all over these United States and I have NEVER seen this injustice you speak of. So, from my perspective, your comment is unfounded and irresponsible.
I agree. From what i saw people poured out their hearts for the Katrina victims and all they did was take advantage of the good people trying to help them.
2) Taking this case to court costs lots of money.
Solution:
Taz this cop 9 times with 50,000-volts. If he lives then he served a just sentence, if he dies he served his just sentence.
Eye for an eye...
LOL LOL
I never saw a department tha had a quota on how many tickets we could write. Personally i preferred not to write them because it was such a hazzle. If you screw up a ticket then you have to fill out all kinds of forms explaining what happened to the ticket as it was a controlled document.
I know there is a quota for DWIs in a certain department in NJ. I have relatives that work there.
I worked for the State Highway Patrol in Missouri and we never had a quota. It is a very foreign concept to me and i would totally disagree with it. What happens if you don''t make your quyota, do they fire you ? What if it happens to be a slow month for drunk drivers, they want to punish the police ? You see why it sounds so ludicrous to me.
Quotas are in direct relation to your salary raise, not punishment. I know cops in NJ retire after 25yrs with most of their pay, retirement, benefits, etc. The state is now bankrupt because of this.
Let me ask you this, I know the answer from my relatives, why when you pull someone over and write them a ticket, they almost never get just one ticket ? It''s always 2 or 3 ?
I get comments from pukes like you all the time, all mouth and no guts, go slither away back to your rock.
I can only answer from my experience. If a person is pulled over and doesn''t have an attitude then the trooper looks to cut him a break and usually will not write more than a warning if it is a slight infraction or give a verbal warning. If there is a vehicle violation that is hazardous usually a ticket is given that allows the person 10 days to get repaired. After repairs he reports to the court house and shows the repair has been mad and the ticket is discarded. Now when it comes to trucking i know the scale guys were tough and when they pulled a truck opver for a violation it was not uncommon to find two or three violations and they usually wrote for each violation. If it was a serious default then it had to be repaired before the truck was allowed to leave or another truck brought and the load would be moved to the new vehicle. It sounds tough but would you want an unsafe 18 wheeler coming down the road and lose control and come into your lane ?
I can remember driving dow the highway and seeing someone broke down, out of gas, flat tire, health problems. To me it was a reminder we were there to serve and protect. I enjoyed helping people. I think a majority of the officers i worked with also enjoyed helping people. It was a chance to give back to the community. Sure we write tickets and arrest the bad guys, but there were good parts of the job as well.
I understand about 18 wheelers and safety and I understand writing multiple tickets when there are more than 1 violation, escpecially for them. I agree with you there. The cases I''m talking about are:
Running a Stop sign: 1 ticket for running the stop sign, 1 for careless driving
Speeding: 1 tick for speeding one for careless and or reckless driving: or BOTH !?
I can''t possibly list all the combinations, but , if someone has run a stop sign, by default they are being careless. It is just to either make more money, or make sure the prosecution will win at least one count in court. It has nothing to do with the safety of the public, but about making money.
Write one ticket.
My only regret is that there were survivors from New Orleans.
I moved out of Texas.
Posted by patriot12436 at 12:52 AM : Aug 14, 2008Comment 2:
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patriot12436, posted this comment 8 hours ago.
Anyone who could wish for the death of ALL New Orleans residents, Has NO credibility as a decent non-abusive police officer, or even a decent human being for that matter.
This places the honesty/credibility of every comment he/she makes in doubt.
I am retired now and yes working in police work did make me prejudice racially as i dealt with the dregs of society. I supporrted equal rights all my life, we passsed programs to give a hand up and all i ever see is a hand out. The black community expects us to supoort them all their lives. Yet they say we hold them down. They make up 13 % of the population yet commit 60 % of the crimes. It only seems to get worse all the time.I consider it like a bad investment after a point you cut your losses and move on. I never mistreated anyone of any race and i am tired of hearing your picking on me because i am black. No i am arresting ytou because you committed a crime.
I got booted and took a while to get back on line. To answer your question. I am sure that some departments do set quota''s. I am glad i never worked for them.
The reason i feel the way i do is because i feel like the blacks never want to better themselves, therefore their attitude made me prejudice. This happensd with a lot of officers. I finally gave up caring or trying.I wasn''t against obama because he was black, i just didn''t believe him, yet everyone assumed it was because i was prejudice. Well i finally decided if i am going to be accused i might as well be guilty. If it comes down to choosing sides i am white so i will be on the side of the whites. I only recently decided to give up after trying all my lfe to treat everyone equally and fairly.
In Missouri it is illegal for an officer to hide from view to write tickets. I am sure some did but not the highway patrol
If an officer is in the wrong i always felt he should be held accountable like anyone else.
Unfortunately, I see a problem with the way cops end their careers. And I don''t say it because of you, but because of my own friends that have been cops. As you told me, the job made you prejudice. And to tell you the truth, it''s hard to argue against what you''re saying because I haven''t been in your shoes. I haven''t dealt with it (crime) as you have. I will say, I do understand that you and other cops are human as everybody else. However, I strongly believe that when a person decides to put on that uniform he/she has to be better than the rest of us (physically, mentally) etc... yes, I know I am asking too much... But I hope I am portraying the high respect I have for those in uniform. You and the rest represent something bigger than yourselves. If you need to act like it.
And tell us what your great accomplishments are for our country ?
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