Lawsuit: Alabama Cops Tasered, Bound and Gagged Teen Girl Having Seizure
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A recently filed federal lawsuit has accused police officers in Alabama of tasering a 16-year-old girl multiple times, binding and gagging her and threatening to have her committed to mental hospital—all for the apparent crime of having a seizure in public, The Washington Post reports.
“A Taser was used three times on a child’s chest, during a medical emergency, while she was pinned to the ground by officers,” attorney Gregory Harp, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the teen and her mother, told AL.com. “Other officers present at the scene failed to intervene. Her mother was knocked to the ground, handcuffed, and then she herself Tased and arrested.”
According to the complaint, the incident occurred when an unruly crowd triggered the girl’s epilepsy at hip-hop concert this January. From AL.com:
This caused the crowd to part around the girl, and her younger sister informed employees of Center Stage that she was suffering a seizure. The suit states an employee picked her up and carried her to the lobby, where she was “unceremoniously dumped” onto the floor and held with a chokehold.
The suit alleges the mother learned of her daughter’s condition from the sister and came to the venue. When she arrived at the lobby dressed in a T-shirt and pajamas, the mother was “held down on the ground at five different points of her body” by police, then restrained to hold her wrists, hands and fingers immobile. After a police officer twice instructed another officer to “get her,” an officer fired his Taser at the mother while she was restrained, causing her to urinate.
The Taser was also employed three times against the teenager, who was “face down with her arms secured behind her,” the suit states. She temporarily lost consciousness and was taken to Gadsden Regional Medical Center, while the mother was arrested for disorderly conduct.
The lawsuit claims officers then bound and gagged the girl while joking about her mother’s arrest and threatening to send her to a mental facility.
WBRC reports the plaintiffs are seeking punitive and medical damages and an injunction against police to provide officers with “proper training and supervision.”
[Image via AP Images]