Legal News

Granny Tasered by Police Gets Excessive Force Trial

By Matthew Heller, Editor

An Oklahoma judge has granted a grandmother a trial on her claim that three police officers used excessive force by repeatedly zapping her with a Taser when she did not comply with their demands to drop a knife.

Lona Varner

?At the time of the incident, [Lona] Varner was 86 years old and in a hospital-type bed hooked up to an oxygen concentrator with a long hose,? U.S. District Judge Stephen P. Friot noted in partially denying the officers' motion for summary judgment.

The two City of El Reno, Okla., officers who fired four Taser rounds at Varner were Thomas Duran and Joseph Sandberg. A third officer, Frank Tinga, was present at the scene and ordered Duran to fire the initial round.

The defense argued that the officers reacted reasonably to a knife-wielding, profanity-spewing woman who was rising from her sickbed to confront them. They had gone to her home on  Dec. 22, 2009 after her grandson suggested in a 911 call that she was suicidal.

But accepting Varner's account of the incident as true, Friot said in his opinion that the officers' use of a Taser was not justified because Varner was not suspected of committing a crime, ?did not pose an immediate threat to Duran or Sandberg or anyone else,? and was neither actively resisting or fleeing arrest from the officers.

As for Tinga, the judge ruled, ?Given Tinga?s close proximity to the deployment of the Tasers and the fact that he initially directed Duran to deploy the Taser on Varner, the court finds that Varner has established [an excessive force] claim against Tinga.?

Police records show two 911 calls preceded the officers' arrival at Varner's apartment ? one from her home health care provider and the other, two minutes later, from her grandson, Lonnie Tinsley. According to Tinsley, he requested only that paramedics ?come check her out,? but police said Officer Duran was dispatched ?in reference to a suicidal subject? who had taken an overdose of medication.

After bringing the knife out, police said, Varner threatened Duran, saying ?she 'killed four japs in World War II and [she] would not bat an eye killing [him].'? Duran ?took Ms. Varner?s threats very seriously? and called for backup.

The officers ?used only the force necessary to react to Ms. Varner?s threatening words and actions and her refusal to comply with directions to drop the knife,? they said in their motion for summary dismissal. After Duran fired the initial Taser round, Sandberg had to fire three more rounds to get the knife out of Varner's hand.

But Varner has testified she did not threaten the officers and the electric shock from Duran's Taser round ?made it impossible for me to open or close the hand with which I was holding the knife.?

Friot dismissed Varner's unlawful arrest claim, finding the officers ?had probable cause to believe that Varner was dangerous to herself and should be taken into protective custody.? But he allowed Tinsley to proceed on his claims that Tinga wrongfully arrested him for obstructing an officer and used excessive force by throwing him to the floor, causing him to hit Varner?s electric wheelchair.

Trial in the case is set for April 11 in Oklahoma City. Given the inherent sympathy for an 86-year-old grandmother ? even one with a proclivity for profanity ? the City of El Reno might be advised to avoid a trial by reaching a settlement with Varner.

By Matthew Heller
On Point

Full post as published by On Point News on March 29, 2011 (boomark / email).