welcome back to the civil rights lawyer Channel where we learn slash remember constitutional law together as crazy things happen around us body camera videos showing a Larimer County Colorado sheriff's deputy tasing a man on Interstate 25 seconds before he was hit by a passing SUV was released Wednesday by attorneys for the Man's family and by the Sheriff's Office gotcha can you step out for me yeah come back here so did you give me the right name yeah what's your name Jacob Todd Jones okay why don't you give me the right name it is the right name yes it is right now um so right now you're under arrest who's at fault here was this a constitutional violation is it the officer's fault was it the car's fault the guy who Ran's fault did the officer commit a crime let's go through it foreign on February 18th of this year Larimer County Sheriff's deputy Lorenzo Lujan was working in overtime Patrol shift in the area of Interstate 25. Deputy Lujan was near this hotel when he observed the vehicle with its backup lights on and reversing out of a parking space on the south side of the hotel Deputy lujon gave the vehicle space to back out of the parking lot but the vehicle remained idling in that location and Deputy Legion reported he found that behavior suspicious the vehicle was identified and Deputy Legion completed a records check of the plate and learned that the registration was expired as of February of 2022. believing the vehicle to be suspicious and deserving of further investigation Lujan parked his vehicle and walked on foot towards the guy's car which was a fusion Deputy Lujan observed the vehicle still parked behind the hotel and idling but in a different spot Deputy Legion returned to his Patrol vehicle in hopes of repositioning to get a view of what may be occurring in the fusion when he observed the fusion leave the parking lot Deputy Lujan followed the Fusion onto the southeast Frontage Road at that time he observed the registration stickers on the license plate did not match the DMV records Deputy Lujan asked dispatch to reconfirm the registration status was expired before he conducted a traffic stop and dispatch responded I confirm it is when the light turned green both vehicles turned left onto the street and the Ford Fusion made a last-second maneuver crossing the solid white lines onto the I-25 on-ramp Deputy Legion followed the Ford Fusion onto I-25 and alerted Larimer County Sheriff's Office dispatch that he would be attempting a traffic stop and requested a cover officer as they drove North on the interstate Deputy Legion noted the vehicle was going much slower than the posted 75 miles per hour speed limit Deputy Lujan then activated his overhead lights and initiated the traffic stop as they approached the next exit he hoped the driver would take the off-ramp as it would provide a safer location for the traffic stop than on the interstate the driver took the exit and stopped his vehicle near the top of the off-ramp Deputy Lujan approached the driver's side of the vehicle and attempted to identify the driver foreign County Sheriff's Office um reason I'm stopping yet is your registration's expired the driver identified himself as quote Jacob Jones and reported a date of birth of November 30th 1994. the driver provided registration and insurance for the vehicle both of which were expired Deputy Lujan noted the insurance information matched the name of the registered owner who the driver identified as his girlfriend uh do you have your license I don't I just literally got everything like pumped up here so um sorry everything is just Mumbo jungle you know um and then I got the little kitten in here too can you take the uh yeah oh what's your girlfriend's name uh Victoria Dominguez what's your last name John 's yeah what's your first name Jacob November 30th um I was literally getting ready to turn back around because I forgot you know a bag and stuff like that I was heading to Loveland you're heading to Loveland yeah but I was I figured it would be quicker to turn around like right here and then like go back to grab the bag that I missed you get what I'm saying do you know which way you're going yeah I'm going um North South so like this way I'm going actually north but I need to go back to the hotel you know to go to Loveland which is off 34 which is South so why'd you go north because like because I was going to turn around like I just said to get the bag you know what I mean that was like for the bruh turns the right because I forgot the backpack you know what I'm saying as Deputy Lujan was talking to the driver he noticed his eyes were constricted so he asked him about drug or alcohol use that night the driver denied using either um so part of my job is to check for safe and silver drivers have you smoked I don't smoke marijuana drugs Deputy Legion returned to his vehicle and utilized the police database to run the names that he was provided and he found that quote Jacob Jones was the with the birthday provided and could see the photograph of Jones did not match the driver of his car Deputy Lujan used law enforcement databases to look at Associates of Jacob Jones and one of the first individuals he saw was quote Brent Thompson Deputy Legion was able to view a picture of Thompson and positively identified him as the driver of this Ford Fusion dispatch informed Lujan that Thompson's driver's license was revoked as a habitual traffic offender a person with three or more convictions that would suspend a license apparently uh investigators later found that there were at least two prior instances in which this guy Thompson used the same false identification information of quote Jacob Jones based on the totality of his observations indicating what was believed to be suspicious Behavior at the hotel suspected impairment and the reporting of a false identity Deputy Legion requested a canine Officer to respond to the scene Deputy Lujan then reapproached Thompson's vehicle with Corporal bordewick to contact Thompson when the deputies reached the vehicle Deputy Lujan asked Thompson to step out of the vehicle and Thompson to comply Deputy Legion allowed Thompson to roll up his window and close the door as there was a cat in the vehicle can you step out for me that's fine thank you don't keep your hands where I can see him yeah okay foreign confronted Thompson with the fact that he provided a fake name Thompson insisted that he had not lied and confirmed the false name it is the right name yes it is Deputy Lujan asked advised Thompson that he was under arrest at which point Thompson ran and ran West down a steep embankment towards I-25 Deputy Lujan ran after Thompson and aired over his radio that he was in a foot pursuit um his taser and gave a use of force command stop Deputy Legion reported that he looked to the South and he did not see any cars or headlights for a great distance but could not see southbound traffic because of the overpass structure at I-25 Thompson attempted to jump over the guardrail on the shoulder of Northbound I-25 but caught his foot on the guardrail and stumbled onto the shoulder of I-25 on the interstate Deputy Lujan was able to close the distance in that time and he subsequently deployed his taser the taser was effective in creating incapacitation Deputy Lujan reported that Thompson was under taser power for one cycle of five seconds as deputy lujon walked through the lane of travel he reported seeing a car traveling Northbound and described it as being closer than expected Corporal bordewick said that he saw Deputy Lujan deploy his taser in the Thompson fell in the northbound lane of travel on the interstate seconds later Corporal bordewick observed headlights coming Northbound towards him so he went into the road and attempted to use his flashlight to stop the approaching vehicle but was unsuccessful the oncoming vehicle hit Thompson in the roadway the impact caused Thompson's body to be pulled further into the roadway after realizing he hit something the driver of the SUV pulled over on the side of the road and backed up to return to the site Deputy Lujan then moved Thompson onto the shoulder and began rendering Medical Aid by performing chest compressions EMS was requested to arrive at this scene however Thompson was pronounced deceased while at the Medical Center of the Rockies the next morning on February 19 2023 while the scene was still secure Larimer County Sheriff's Corporal Hawks was able to run his canine around perimeter of the Ford Fusion and he indicated that his canine alerted to the presence of Narcotics inside the vehicle based on that information the vehicle is towed to a police slot while a search warrant was sought a judge signed a search warrant for the vehicle and several items of evidence were collected including drug paraphernalia a fake canned storage container burnt tin foil and glass pipe narcotics seven cell phones in a Sig Sauer 1911 handgun so those were the facts as determined by the district attorney there who issued this long letter a copy of which I'll post at the blog detailing the investigation results and his ultimate decision not to press any criminal charges against the officer here but there's some interesting information in that report particularly the main issue that I'm interested in here and that's obviously used to the taser on an interstate with an SUV rapidly approaching the guy you're about to incapacitate let's look at the policy for this actual agency that this Deputy was trained on so this is their policy the taser may be used when the circumstances perceived by the deputy at the time indicate that such application is reasonably necessary to control a person if number one the person is violent or physically resisting number two the person is demonstrated by words or action an intention to be violent or to physically resist and reasonably appears to present the potential to harm deputies themselves or others note the use of the taser is not authorized to apprehend an individual without known circumstances or factors whose only action is flight from a deputy attempting to make contact so here as I believe many police departments have as a policy you're not supposed to use a Taser just to apprehend somebody who's fleeing and I believe that for the most part that complies with Federal Fourth Amendment law so this would be an excessive force analysis which somebody who is in the process of of an attempted arrest is going to be fall under the gram factors Graham versus Conor one is the severity of the crime that the suspect is accused of committing now here that is basically some traffic violations um just random General suspiciousness and giving a fake name to the officer possible some drug use so not a suspected serial killer not a known violent felon not somebody who's been known to try to kill police officers or anything like that so very very minor on the gram Factor scale of severity of crime secondly whether they're physically resisting or evading arrest now certainly this guy is evading arrest he's he's in the process of running and third the most important Grant Factor whether or not the suspect poses an immediate safety threat to the police officer or anyone else present at the scene and that's what's missing here is there's no physical safety threat reason to tase the sky he's running away he's not known to be armed he's not known to be dangerous he's not known to be violent he's not in the press the process of trying to hurt somebody basically what is happening here is this officer is using the taser to apprehend somebody which is exactly what he's not supposed to do Under the policy and the policy reads that way because generally the federal case law does not allow somebody just to be apprehended with a taser unless there's some sort of violent fleeing felon I.E Tennessee versus Garner even where you're authorized to use a Taser there are certain situations where you wouldn't want to do so remember the guy who is doused in gasoline so their policy here at this agency actually has several of those so you're not supposed to tase somebody individuals who are known to be pregnant elderly individuals or obvious younger juveniles individuals with low body mass individuals who are handcuffed or otherwise restrained individuals who have been recently sprayed with the flammable chemical agent so this is like their incorp creating all these other incidents into their policy which which is smart to do and also individuals whose position or activity may result in collateral injury EG Falls from height slash operating vehicles and that's exactly what we have here here you have somebody tased on I-25 their Vehicles operating on I-25 so that's a bad idea it doesn't fall within policy and in my opinion it also doesn't fall within Federal Fourth Amendment law because the guy is just running away he's not known to be dangerous he's not in the process of trying to hurt somebody it's just somebody being apprehended for basically non-violent misdemeanors as per the district attorney there's no criminal charges going to be filed against this police officer but certainly there is definitely a civil case and obviously that's in the process because I think it was the lawyers for this guy Brent Thompson who released the footage and I'll put the link to the raw footage in the the first comment here and also link it at the blog post but it's it's really really awful footage really can't be unseen and it's it's really a sad case so as always if you like going over these sorts of cases and making sure that you understand constitutional Law stay on top of it which we all need to do please subscribe both here and at the blog at the Civil Rights lawyer.com remember freedom is scary deal with it foreign foreign