• Ex-wife arrested after Florida man dragged behind truck

    Jeanette Morris, Harold Anderson, Joan Hobart

    By Brian Hamacher, NBCMiami.com

    Two women and a man are facing attempted murder charges after authorities say they shocked a Florida man with a stun gun and beat him before tying him to a truck's bumper and dragging him a half-mile down a road.

    Jeannette Morris, 61, her brother, 63-year-old Harold Anderson, and 46-year-old Joan Hobart are also charged with aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit murder in the Tuesday incident in Samsula, Volusia County Sheriff's Office officials said.

     

    Authorities say Morris, Anderson and Hobart were drinking vodka with Morris' ex-husband in the home she shares with him when the three attacked the ex-husband.

    The 54-year-old ex-husband was shocked several times with the stun gun and repeatedly punched in the face and had a gun put to his head. He then had his hands tied behind his back and he was dragged outside, where his ankles were tied and the rope was attached to the rear bumper of a pickup truck, authorities said.

    The man was dragged down the road before the truck stopped and he was tossed in the back. The trio cut off some of his hair and talked about scalping him and finding a hole in which to bury him, authorities said.

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    At one point, the man was able to break free and jump from the moving truck and ran to a nearby home to get help. Authorities say he showed up at the home beaten and bloody wearing only his torn underwear and ropes around his neck and wrist.

    He was treated at the scene and later taken to a Daytona hospital's intensive surgical care unit with a broken pelvis, broken facial bones and bleeding in his brain.

    Deputies found Morris who had dried blood on her clothes and hand but denied her involvement in the attack and said the blood came from breaking up a fight between dogs, authorities said.

    Anderson was also found with a swollen right hand with cut and bloody knuckles, authorities said. He had a gun and a shovel and showed no remorse, authorities said, saying it wouldn't have bothered him if the victim had died.

    Hobart, of New Smyrna Beach, was arrested Wednesday night. All three remained in custody early Friday and it was unknown whether they have attorneys.

  • Lawsuit: Cop stuns 10-year-old with Taser for refusing to clean his patrol car

    By NBC News

    SANTA FE, N.M. -- A New Mexico state police officer used his Taser to stun a 10-year-old schoolboy who refused to clean his patrol car, according to a lawsuit filed in Santa Fe County Court by the boy's family.


    During a career day program at Tularosa Intermediate School in May, Officer Christopher Webb of the state Department of Public Safety pointed the stun gun at the boy and said, "Let me show you what happens to people who do not listen to the police," according to the lawsuit filed last week.

    Webb said his stun gun went off by accident, sending two barbs carrying 50,000 volts of electricity for five seconds through the boy’s clothing and piercing his chest, the Albuquerque Journal reported, quoting court documents. The jolt caused the boy to black out, the suit said.

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    Rachel Higgins, attorney for the boy who weighs less than 100 pounds and is referred to in the lawsuit by only his initials, told the court he has been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, waking in the middle of the night clutching his chest in fear since the incident. He has scars the size of cigarette burns, she said in court papers.

    The boy was only joking about not wanting to clean the patrol car when Webb asked a group of boys if they would, according to court documents.

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    Webb, named in the suit along with the Department of Public Safety, received a three-day, unpaid suspension after the incident, the Journal reported.

    Webb said in court documents he took the boy to the school nurse’s office and waited with him there until the student’s mother arrived.

    The boy's family is seeking compensation and punitive damages, the Journal reported.

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  • Report: 9-year-old who skipped school is Tasered

    By msnbc.com staff

    MOUNT STERLING, Ohio -- An Ohio police officer says he used a stun gun twice on a 9-year-old who skipped school because the child refused to cooperate with his commands.

    Details of the incident, which resulted in the shutdown of a village police force, were released Monday, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The Mount Sterling officer went to the boy's home on a truancy complaint last week. He says the child's mother warned the boy, who weighs between 200 and 250 pounds, to obey the officer or he'd be shocked.


    According to a copy of the police report provided by the mayor’s office to msnbc.com, the officer wrote that the boy “dropped to the floor and became dead weight” and lay on his hands to prevent being handcuffed.

    “He refused any and all orders. I told him if he did not stop flailing and place his hands behind his back, I would deploy the Taser on him. He still did not comply to my orders to stop resisting,” the officer wrote.

    The officer said he deployed the stun gun twice before he was able to handcuff the boy. The child was checked by a medic before being taken to the sheriff’s office, and a delinquency count of resisting arrest was added to his truancy charge, according to the police report.

    The village police chief, Mike McCoy, announced Monday night that he will resign from his post but said it has nothing to do with the Taser incident. McCoy read a statement that said the village’s declining budget keeps him from doing his job, according to the Dispatch.

    “Basically, the funds we have here are very low and he wasn’t able to keep in budget,” Mayor Charles Neff said of the police chief.

    McCoy was placed on paid leave late last week from his $49,900-a-year job for waiting two days before telling the mayor about the incident.

    The loss of the chief effectively meant the end of the village’s police department, since he was the only full-time officer. The others were part time or volunteers, Neff has said.

    The Madison County Sheriff’s Office has taken on the task of patrolling Mount Sterling, which has a population of about 1,800.

    Neff said state authorities are investigating whether the officer used excessive force or otherwise acted inappropriately in subduing the boy.

    Read the full Columbus Dispatch story.

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