Prince William police investigate Taser incident
Published: July 30, 2009
MANASSAS — Prince William County police are looking into whether officers went too far in deploying a Taser while arresting a man and woman over the weekend.
Police say they received a noise complaint about a home in Manassas on Sunday. They say 55-year-old Edgar Rodriguez was having a family party in his backyard, and officers found him “highly intoxicated.“
Police say Rodriguez refused to turn down the volume of music playing, and began to act “disorderly,“ refusing to identify himself. Family members, including Leticia Elias, tried to interfere when they told him he was under arrest.
Police used a Taser on Rodriguez and Elias. They both face various charges, including resisting arrest.
Internal investigations follow every use of force, police said.
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“Questions have arisen about the legality of the police charging someone with being drunk in public in their own backyard. Hernandez [police spokesperson] said that a backyard is considered a public area. Only the interior of a person’s home is considered private”
(excerpt from the superior article)
Oh, really?
What the RTD leaves out of this is that this person was tased and arrested for being drunk in public while in his own backyard. I heard an interesting dialogue today about the abuse of disorderly conduct statutes by the police… perhaps this is an extension of the same principle? Law enforcement using the laws as retribution to a personal slight, applying charges which stretch the spirit of the law (at best), just to put some jerk through the wringer?
It seems to me that they wanted to arrest him for SOMETHING (since the only thing they could legitimately nail him for was a noise violation at that point), so decided to invoke the DIP statute injudiciously.
A better article:
This happened in the middle of the afternoon. Somehow, Rodriguez was charged with public intoxication on his own property. The family of the woman that was tazed says she is pregnant.
Stay classy Prince William County!
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