August 31, 2009

Taser Lawsuit: Michael Jacobs (Ft. Worth, TX)


The City of Fort Worth and police officer Stephanie Phillips have been slapped with a lawsuit of at least $75,000 for the wrongful taser-related death of 24-year old Michael Jacobs, Jr. [VIDEO REPORT]

The lawsuit cites the coroner's report which states; "....Phillips advised the decedent that if he did not calm down and comply with her directions, she would have to use her Taser device on him; he replied reportedly, 'Go ahead, I've always wanted to see what that feels like anyway.' "
According to the autopsy report, Phillips shocked Jacobs for 49-seconds, paused one second, and then shocked him five more seconds.

The autopsy report states Phillips; "...unknowingly kept the Taser trigger engaged for an unknown amount of time when she first applied the Taser, thus increasing the pre-programmed shock duration cycle of five seconds."
Villager's Voice: It does appear that Officer Phillips' was poorly trained in the use of her taser gun. Synch that finding with the one made by the medical examiner that Jacobs' taser death was 'homicide' and you have a pretty clear case against the city of Ft. Worth. Methinks that they should work to settle this out of court.

2 comments:

Gunfighter said...

The city will probably settle... but not because they have to... it's just cheaper than contesting the suit.

The autopsy reoprt drew an interesting conclusion when it said that the office unkowingly continued to apply pressure to the Taser trigger. Any number of things can be attributed to that.

Unknown said...

Gunfighter - At the end of the day ... this young man shouldn't have been killed that day. Someone needs to be held accountable...