Take a day away from the office and cops and courts news breaks out. Here’s a recap of just a few of the things that happened:
In Taser news, here’s the Billings Gazette’s follow-up on an inquest that showed methamphetamine actually caused the death of a man zapped by police with a stun gun:
In reaching the verdict in the death of 31-year-old Ryan Michael Bain, the seven-member jury also concluded that police and jail officers who shocked Bain four times with a Taser did not commit a criminal offense.
The unanimous verdict came at the end of nearly two days of testimony into the Oct. 12 death of Bain, who was arrested two days earlier when he was found running naked through a Billings neighborhood.
This Associated Press story is from Colorado, but when an 8-year-old says “Come get me, f——” – and then gets Tased, twice, by police – it catches our eye:
The staff at the Colorado elementary school said no one could calm 8-year-old Aidan Elliott.
He had just thrown a TV and chairs and was now trying to use a cart to bust through a door to an office where teachers had taken some young students for safety.
They called the police. The officers found him with a foot-long piece of wood trim with a knife-like point in one hand and a cardboard box in the other.
The bride wore white, her brother ended up in orange: This wedding reception at Three Forks sounded like something out of a Weddings Gone Wrong type of show. The AP has it:
A Three Forks man accused of hitting his pregnant sister in the mouth with a wrench during her wedding reception has pleaded no contest to criminal endangerment. …
Prosecutors say [Daviid] Sicotte arrived at the reception uninvited Aug. 27, pushed his sister’s new mother-in-law to the ground and started fighting with the groom. Witnesses say he later came at his sister with the wrench. The bride told police she slapped her into
DUI duh: The Montana Standard’s John Grant Emeigh has one of those you-saw-this-coming stories about a justice of the peace whose job includes handling DUI cases. He got charged with – yep, you’ve got it – a DUI:
An affidavit alleges Butte police officers found [Robert E. "Bob"] Lee at the police station about 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 13, appearing confused and under the influence of either alcohol or a narcotic. Lee allegedly was found by police officers knocking on the window in the police station lobby at 225 N. Alaska.
Lee asked officers to let him into the courthouse because he had a wedding to perform that morning. When the officers told him they didn’t have access to the courthouse, Lee allegedly said he would perform the wedding ceremony in the lobby of the police station, the nine-page affidavit states.
He’s accused of driving while under the influence of methadone.
Gwen Florio
Judge DUI. I’m sure there’s more in the 9 page affidavit, but was he stopped as he drove into the police station? Or is it just assumed he drove there because his car was parked in the lot? He could have taken the pill[s] after he parked and got out walked around what ever.