Tag Archives: florida
Today in Florida: Kenneth Rowe Leaves Baby with Liquor Store Clerk While Enjoying the Strip Club
Florida is starting off the New Year right by sharing this story of Father of the Year. First, I must say how amazing it is that there are strip club’s/liquor stores. While the two certainly go hand in hand, I never have heard of such a venue. Clearly, 26-year-old Kenneth Rowe hadn’t either and was too excited to wait and find a babysitter. According to the store clerk, Rowe stumbled into the Shark Lounge Liquor store drunk and asked the clerk to watch his 11-month-old son. In the attached building was the Shark Lounge Gentleman’s Club, where the young father decided it would best to leave the kid with an unknown stranger who was working.
Soon after it became clear that Rowe was enjoying himself and not coming back for his child anytime soon, the clerk called the police and explained that the child was hungry and had a rash on its face. I found this part odd, because I would have assumed he could simply call and say some drunk man left him with a baby, but his hunger and rash seemed far more important I suppose. Rowe was arrested for child neglect and the baby boy is now in the custody of the state Department of Children and Families.
[UPDATED] [VIDEO/AUDIO] WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC! Ronald Poppo Speaks Out For The Very First Time!
This combo made with undated photos made available by the Miami-Dade Police Dept. shows Rudy Eugene, 31, left, who police shot and killed as he ate the face of Ronald Poppo, 65, right, during a horrific attack in the shadow of the Miami Herald’s headquarters on Saturday, May 26, 2012. Poppo was in critical condition Tuesday, with only his goatee intact on his face, the newspaper reported. (AP Photo/Miami-Dade Police Dept.)
UPDATE: THURSDAY August 9th, 2012 at 9:05 AM – Ronald Poppo is speaking out for the very first time, and we have the audio recording below in this news piece.
UPDATE: MONDAY July 16th, 2012 at 10:45 AM – A friend of Eugene’s, Christian, 34, has come forward and told authorities that they had both previously met Poppo while volunteering to feed the homeless.
‘Poppo seemed like a nice and kind man,’ Christian, 34, told the Herald. ‘I remember when we gave him food.’
The police are hoping that this new information might lead them to a motive for the attack.
UPDATE: THURSDAY June 28th, 2012 at 10:35 AM - The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner has come out and said that there was only Marijuana found in Rudy Eugene’s system. The toxicology report has been completed.
“The department’s toxicology laboratory has identified the active components of marijuana,” the medical examiner said in a statement. “The laboratory has tested for but not detected any other street drugs, alcohol or prescription drugs, or any adulterants found in street drugs.”
Along with ruling out all drugs and alcohol other than Marijuana, the department has stated that there were no known drugs in bath salts present in Eugene’s system at the time.
Poppo has been recovering at Jackson Memorial Hospital‘s Ryder Trauma Center since the attack on May 26th that took place along the MacArthur Causeway. 50 Percent of his face were attacked and he’s also suffering an infection, brain injury and some puncture wounds in his chest.
I am sorry, but there is NO WAY in hell that Eugene was just under the influence of Marijuana. To strip naked, viciously attack someone, eat their face and then to not retreat after being shot means he was clearly crazy or on some sort of drug, similar to LSD. Bath salts are a newer drug that people know very little about. Could it be possible that the drug had worked its way out of his system before the toxicology was performed? Did he have mental issues before this particular attack? The fact that he stripped off his clothing means he was feeling very hot, which is a feeling that many people get when they take Speed, Ecstasy, or LSD. Another common factor is that pain is dismissed while high on these drugs. It seems logical that Rudy Eugene was having a similar experience, yet the department says nothing was present? I think some more investigation needs to go into this, because if marijuana gets a bad name thanks to this crazy ass cannibal, I will not be happy about that. People have worked too hard to share the effects of marijuana, which usually don’t include eating people, getting naked and being able to take bullets like some kind of Superman.
UPDATE: WEDNESDAY June 13th at 9:08 AM – A photo has been released with the consequences of the attack finally revealed. Below, you can find that image as well as more about this story.
“He was always looking for ways to make money. Not necessarily illegal, but sometimes he got in trouble with it,” lifelong friend, Daniel Ruiz told the Miami Herald. “But for Rudy to do something that graphic, that aggressive, that violent, that gruesome — that’s what’s really troubling us. Rudy? Really? Rudy? Naw.”
MIAMI (AP) — Authorities were seeking more witnesses Tuesday to help explain what led a naked man to start chewing another naked man’s face and whose only response when confronted by police was to growl and keep attacking – even after being shot.
At least one witness so far has said he saw the attack Saturday on a busy highway off-ramp. Police have identified the attacker as Rudy Eugene, 31.
The victim, who has not been identified, is in critical condition at a hospital. Both men were naked at the time of the attack, The Miami Herald reported.
“We know that there were many people on the MacArthur Causeway and we’re hoping they come forward,” Detective William Moreno was quoted Monday by the newspaper as saying.
Police have released few details about the attack, other than confirming that an officer had fatally shot a suspect.
A police spokesman and the Miami-Dade County medical examiner did not immediately return telephone calls Tuesday from The Associated Press.
Witness Larry Vega was riding his bicycle Saturday afternoon off the MacArthur Causeway that connects downtown Miami with Miami Beach when he saw the savage attack, he told local news media.
“The guy was, like, tearing him to pieces with his mouth, so I told him, ‘Get off!’” Vega told Miami television station WSVN (http://bit.ly/L6kwWt). “The guy just kept eating the other guy away, like, ripping his skin.”
Vega flagged down a Miami police officer, who he said repeatedly ordered the attacker to get off the victim. The attacker just picked his head up and growled at the officer, Vega said.
As the attack continued, Vega said the officer shot the attacker, who continued chewing the victim’s face. The officer fired again, killing the attacker.
A surveillance camera from The Miami Herald building nearby captured images of the men’s naked legs lying side by side after the shooting.
Vega said the victim appeared gravely injured.
“It was just a blob of blood,” Vega said. “You couldn’t really see, it was just blood all over the place.”
Vega declined to speak Tuesday with The Associated Press. He said he was trying to put the attack behind him.
Ives Eugene, who identified himself as Rudy Eugene’s uncle, described his nephew as a “nice and hard-working” man who washed cars at a local dealership.
In a telephone interview, Eugene, 55, said his nephew had asked his girlfriend to borrow her car, but she said no. “So he rode the bicycle, and he never came back home.”
Ives Eugene said the family heard Monday about the attack but did not know what sparked it.
Rudy Eugene’s ex-wife declined to be interviewed when reached by The Associated Press by telephone.
Ronald Poppo was a quiet homeless man that supposedly, never bothered anyone. Although he was a bit down and out during this incident, he attended a prestigious New York School as a young man and wasn’t heading for a life on the streets. Sadly, he’s still in critical condition. Even if he does survive, there’s not much left of his face and it could be a very long recovery process.
Ronald Poppo as a young student in New York
Related articles
- Police look for witnesses of face-chewing attack (ajc.com)
- Miami police look for witnesses of face-chewing attack (mercurynews.com)
- Naked attacker shot while chewing victim’s face (thegrio.com)
- Police look for witnesses of face-chewing attack (newsday.com)
- Miami police look for witnesses of face-chewing attack (ctv.ca)
- Witnesses Sought in Face-Chewing Attack (myfoxdetroit.com)
[VIDEO] From Minister to Atheist: Losing Faith
Teresa MacBain walks her dog, Gracie, at a park near her Tallahassee, Fla., home. After a lifetime in the church, MacBain came out as an atheist at an American Atheists' convention in Bethesda, Md.
Today I read a wonderful article on NPR (National Public Radio) which focused on Teresa MacBain, 44-year-old minister at Lake Jackson United Methodist Church who recently decided to ‘come out’ as an atheist. For me, someone who has had their own personal journey that led to not believing in God, this was a wonderful story of freedom of thought and willingness to question what we’ve come to know as true. Obviously, some of you reading this may not agree, but regardless, it’s still a great story and sheds some light on how a lack of faith can lead one to be discriminated against and judged, ironically, by those who preach compassion and understanding.
“I’m currently an active pastor and I’m also an atheist,” she says. “I live a double life. I feel pretty good on Monday, but by Thursday — when Sunday’s right around the corner — I start having stomachaches, headaches, just knowing that I got to stand up and say things that I no longer believe in and portray myself in a way that’s totally false.”
MacBain was well-known and well-respected in her community, and certainly, at her church in Tallahassee, FL. But now that she has started to question and concluded that she is an Atheist, she has no one to share her emotions with. The congregation doesn’t want to hear that the person leading them in sermons each week doesn’t believe in the God she speaks of and is praying for things she feels will never be answered.
Fortunately, this minister who sought truth has others out there who know exactly what she’s going though, and that is people who have come together for the American Atheists‘ convention in Bethesda, MD. Sitting in this building, on Sunday, with other atheists, isn’t much different from sitting in her church; For her though, this is what feels right because she no longer feels she’s living a lie or being dishonest (both things that are a human morality issue, not only privy to the religious zealots). It is my personal opinion that if one needs rules and consequences to not lie as an adult than they really aren’t all that moral (and usually don’t live up to their own standards); I try my hardest to be honest, loyal, kind, generous, forging, understand, etc. because it’s the right thing to do. Simple. I have no God who will condemn me. I have no God who fill forgive me. I am the only one who will judge my character and attempt to achieve my personal best. Now, back to MacBain, the ‘condemned’ minister.
Before the trip to the Atheist convention, MacBain had recorded her thoughts on the iPhone she possessed as a means of getting out what she felt.
“On my way to church again. Another Sunday. Man, this is getting worse,” she tells her phone in one recording. “How did I get myself in this mess? Sometimes, I think to myself, if I could just go back a few years and not ask the questions and just be one of those sheep and blindly follow and not know the truth, it would be so much easier. I’d just keep my job. But I can’t do that. I know it’s a lie. I know it’s false.”
The former minister was raised all her life to know of God and live life for God. Her family held values that are typical for a conservative Southern Baptist. In fact, her dad was a pastor and she was already feeling ‘the call of God’ at the age of 6. And while she did have concerns as far as some of the contradictions with the Bible and the role of women, she managed to suppress those, until she, herself, became a minister. Hoping that her faith would grow stronger, she started to ask difficult questions which led her down this path.
“In reality,” she says, “as I worked through them, I found that religion had so many holes in it, that I just progressed through stages where I couldn’t believe it.”
“I just kind of realized — I mean just a eureka moment, not an epiphany, a eureka moment — I’m an atheist,” she says. “I don’t believe. And in the moment that I uttered that word, I stumbled and choked on that word — atheist.”
The Clergy Project, an online community of clergy members who have lost faith is something that MacBain had come across a year ago and looked to for support. She knew she’d have to get another job, but people wanted to know who she was leaving her current job, which led to insecurity with giving them her answer, honestly. And unfortunately, those at The Clergy Project could only be there for her emotionally. And seeing as discrimination is illegal, you would think this was an irrational fear, but as far too many people on this Earth know, discrimination can be illegal, but laws aren’t always enforced. (Or someone could always explain the she wasn’t qualified for various other reasons. You know, a roundabout way allowing one to discriminate)
“So what the hell am I supposed to do?” she asks in one recording, her voice sounding desperate. “Really, the options are work at something like Starbucks or McDonald’s — and even there they’re going to ask those questions. I could even clean houses and not make a great amount of money — but at least nobody would be asking me questions.”
March 26th, 2012 was the day of the convention and former minister, MacBain, was excited to go and share her story with around 1,500 people who also believed in seeking truth and answers. Her welcoming brought her to tears and allowed her to give a miraculous speech. She spoken open and honest, which is something she had been unable to do for some time. Here, with people she had hated and thought were being misled, was where she was able to share her story. No one ridiculed her for past wrongs she had made, no one was insulted by her misguided judgements; She was embraced and applauded for ultimately doing what she felt was right and apologizing for her ignorance towards the community of non believers.
“I am nervous,” she says, “but at the same time I am so excited. I slept like a baby last night because I knew I wasn’t going to have to live a lie anymore. Such freedom.”
Many people were overwhelmed by her speech and wanted to share with her how happy they were that she came to Bethesda, MD. After she returned home, the video had even gone viral. Unfortunately, people from her hometown were not as excited by her speech as those back in Bethesda. Quite honestly, they were cruel, judgmental, awful to her, which is something no congregation (or any person(s)) should ever be.
WCTV, the local news station had done many reports about MacBain and her journey. Oddly enough, they only interviewed her boos, not her directly. Hundreds of people wrote their opinions on the matter, which were hard for this respectable woman to read.
“The majority of them, to begin with, were pretty hateful,” she says, although some nonbelievers soon came to her defense. “For somebody who’s been a good guy their whole life and been a people pleaser, it’s really hard to imagine that overnight you’re the bad guy.”
This poor woman who had an internal conflict tried to speak with the church district’s Superintendent so she could explain everything, but the meeting was canceled. Out of the many amounts of friends that she previously had, only two called to take her to lunch and stay a friend despite her decision. It seemed that with one decision all of those who were suppose to be around to support her for years, had suddenly disappeared. Along with the emotional stress she was now enduring, job interviews were suddenly canceled as well, due to the revelation of why she left the ministry. Finances were now going to be another stress she’d have to endure. Luckily, the Humanists of Florida Association had offered to give her a full years pay, but it is not a guarantee. Her family, fortunately, was a refuge for her, despite their conflicting beliefs.
“I believe in God,” says her husband, Ray. “And to be honest, I pray for her every night, I got friends praying for her.”
And even without his prayers answered, he loves and adores his wife and plans to stay with her.
“That’s why I spent 23 years in the Army. That’s why I’m still a police officer. We have freedom of speech and freedom of thought. And God never forced anybody to believe, so who am I to step up?”
Through all of this, MacBain shares that although she no longer misses God in her life, she does miss the music. She sang in choirs and loves the melodies and can still be heard singing some of those beautiful songs, only this time, she no longer believes in the words she is signing. She was searching for truth and understanding, and I guess you could say, her prayers have been answered.
Related articles
- Why do Americans still dislike atheists, still? (examiner.com)
- Richard Dawkins’ Speech at the American Atheists Convention (patheos.com)
- Islamic fun at the Global Atheist Convention – Video (constitutionclub.org)
- The Week of Reason, Part Two – The 2012 American Atheists Convention (wilmingtonfavs.com)
- Atheist solidarity: Jason Rosenhouse rallys for reason (oup.com)
- Locked Out: How the Church Responded to their Pastor’s Coming Out – Teresa MacBain – RichardDawkins.net (richarddawkins.net)
- A Catholic Ponders the Global Atheist Convention (ncregister.com)
- Does God Really Prefer ‘Kind Atheists Over Hateful Christians’? (patheos.com)
- ‘Angry Atheist’ Podcast Features Interview with Atheist Pastor (patheos.com)
- Atheist Billboards Set to Delight Atheists, Piss Off Religious People [Religion] (gawker.com)
- Jack Black: ‘I’m Kind of an Atheist’ (patheos.com)
Mother Donates Kidney to Boss in Need and is Subsequently Fired
Debbie Stevens, a 47-year-old mother of two, from Long Island, New York, had offered her kidney to her boss Jackie Brucia, 61, after she had mentioned she was having a difficult time finding a donor.
Stevens has filed a legal complaint at the Human Rights Commission in New York, which claims that her boss, Brucia, used her and then after getting what she wanted, fired her, according to the New York Post.
‘I feel very betrayed. This has been a very hurtful and horrible experience for me.
‘She just took this gift and put it on the ground and kicked it.’
BOSS: Jackie Brucia, 61
Brucia was Stevens’ boss at a billion dollar Atlantic Automotive Group that ran car dealerships in New York. Although Stevens had left the company in June of 2010 after moving to Florida, she decided to move back to Long Island and asked for her job back. Fortunately, Brucia agreed without hesitation to give Stevens her job back, and it is now assumed she may have had ulterior motives.
Just two months after being re-employed, Brucia approached Debbie Stevens and asked if she would still be interested in donating the kidney that she had offered to do so while still in Florida.
‘She was my boss, I respected her,’ Stevens told the Post. ‘It’s just who I am. I didn’t want her to die.’
Although she wasn’t a match for Brucia, she donated to another group, which would then make sure that her boss would be able to get a kidney from someone in that group. After the surgery, she said she was in excruciating pain. She felt pressured to go into work, and unfortunately, wasn’t able to stay for the day (after 3 days) and returned home. This, was not okay with Brucia.
‘You can’t come and go as you please,’ her boss allegedly said. ‘People are going to think you’re getting special treatment.’
Stevens was then yelled at before being demoted to a car dealership that was now 50 miles from her place of residence. After Stevens’ lawyers wrote a letter to the company, she was fired. Brucia’s husband alleges these are all falsely exaggerated claims, yet Stevens says they are nothing but the truth. In either scenario one of these women has been very cruel. Getting fired after giving someone a kidney for ludicrous claims is wrong. But then again, giving someone a kidney and acting as if you’re owed something, getting fired and then suing to get what you want, is also very wrong. And unfortunately, we don’t know what really happened here.
Related articles
- Following The Kidney Chain (webnerhouse.com)
- ‘I gave my boss my kidney – and she took my heart’: New York mum’s ‘betrayal’ after claims that boss she donated life-saving organ to FIRES her (mirror.co.uk)
- A Rapid City mother donates kidney to son (taishalwalker.com)
- “Transplant Chain” of Kidney Donors, Recipients Meet for the First Time (kstp.com)
- Ms. Brucia’s 7th graders (imjustwalkin.com)
- “This tragic story has been flying around the internet for the past few days. The story was broken in…” (kidneynotes.com)
Man Arrested For Having Sex With Pet Dog Mimi, who was ‘whimpering in pain’
UPDATE: Friday April 20th, 2012 @ 11:45 AM – Mimi, the 10 lb. poodle mix, is back with her owners and starting to seem a little more like her old self. No longer seeming to be in pain and being friendly to strangers again, despite the horrendous act of being penetrated by a 28-year-old man.
A man was arrested for having sex with his pet dog Mimi after a witness told police he saw him penetrate the canine, which was said to be whimpering in pain.
Jenson Bolla-Sosa, 28, of Fort Lauderdale, was charged with knowingly having sexual contact with a dog, cruelty to an animal and resisting arrest without violence.
While this is definitely a sick and perverted crime, I’d like to first ask why he was charged with ‘knowingly having sexual contact with a dog’? Is it possibly to be having sex with a dog and NOT know? It’s not like he got wasted and went to stick it in his lady and accidentally started screwing a dog without noticing the hair and dog whimpers. Knowing it’s a dog should be a given when you have sex with it.
Anyway, he is now out on bail for $12,500 and is also being investigated by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. When you come to America, allegedly illegal, and rape our dogs, we get pissed. One of the few things you get into trouble for, here in America, when you’ve illegally immigrated here.
Related articles
- Sex Doggie Style Sends Ft. Lauderdale Man To Jail (miami.cbslocal.com)
- Pet burned to death in dog-dryer (thesun.co.uk)
- Police seek man who stole dog from 14-year-old girl in Burlington (thestar.com)
- Guatemalan Immigrant Caught Having Sex With A Bitch (dreamindemon.com)
- Georgia man arrested for sexually abusing neighbor’s dogs (thegrio.com)
[VIDEO] ‘I will kill the f*** out of you’: Student Goes Crazy on Teacher And Fellow Students in Evolution Class
Jonatha Carr, a Florida Atlantic University student, was tased and taken to the hospital after cursing, issuing death threats and physically fighting. Carr had asked the teacher, ‘How does evolution kill black people?’ and was not happy when he told the student that evolution didn’t kill people. She began to get increasingly upset and started altercations with the teacher as well as with fellow students.
Stephen Kajiura was the teacher in this class and is seen trying to stay calm throughout the incident despite the fact that Carr was telling the professor, ‘You are fucking sick’ and ‘You better shut the fuck up before I fucking kill you.’
After two staff members escorted the crazy bitch, 24, out of the room, police arrived on the scene and took her away in the patrol car. She had to be tased and is now being held at the hospital.
YouTube: Video by Rachel Bustamante (originally posted to Facebook).
“Lunatic in my evolution class asking the most absurd question and gets angry when the Prof (Dr. Kajiura) doesn’t know how to answer it.
Context: The slide we were on just before was about Female Sexual Selection. For instance, female peacocks have selection in their mates, preferring the males with the bigger train of feathers.. Somehow she went off on some tangent with a question about how does Evolution play a role in the killing of all black people…
Dr. Kajiura tried to answer her question even though he had no idea what she was talking about. She repeated her question 4-5 more times and it turned into this craziness you see here… Clearly, this person has some SERIOUS emotional issues within herself and the discussion of PEACOCKS was the catalyst to the unleashing of this insanity.
She was escorted out of class and I heard she was tasered and arrested by the police. Today was our review day before a test on Thursday and students were getting irritated by her wasting our time. No one understood what her point was… Craziest thing I’ve ever seen.
Apparently natural selection doesn’t remove crazy from the population.”
Related articles
- Anti-evolution class discussions get Senate’s OK; approval (knoxnews.com)
- Upset Over Trayvon Martin’s Murder Student Flips Out In FL Lecture Hall, Asks Why ‘Evolution Kills Black People’ (clutchmagonline.com)
- Tennessee Passes ‘Monkey Bill’ To Teach The ‘Controversy’ On Evolution And Climate Science – Brad Johnson – ThinkProgress (richarddawkins.net)
- Black Female FAU Student Has Meltdown In Class: Hits White Classmates! [VIDEO] (hellobeautiful.com)
- In Case You Had Any Doubt About Santorum’s Anti-Science Cred, Today He Attacked Evolution (littlegreenfootballs.com)
- FAU Student’s Outburst Goes Viral On YouTube (miami.cbslocal.com)
Father and Girlfriend Keep 13-Year-Old Caged And Starved Until He Weighed Just 40lbs
The father of a 13-year-old boy and his girlfriend have been arrested after keeping the young teen caged and deprived him of food. Michael Marshall, 38, and his live-in girlfriend, Sharon Glass, 48, were discovered to have kept the boy caged, strapped to a bed, and locked in a bathroom up to weeks at a time. In the end, he was found lying on the bathroom floor weighing only 40 pounds.
Hospital staff said the condition of the child resembled images of ‘concentration camp survivors’. He was severely malnourished and treated for dehydration.
The couple is from Orlando and have been charged with three counts of aggravated child abuse and aggravated child neglect. The police in Titusville went to the home in Brevard County on Thursday evening after they had received a child abuse complaint. While the police were tending to the teen in very poor condition, the couple returned home.
Marshall and Glass confessed to keeping the boy caged as well as punishing him. According to these sick people, they punished the boy for stealing food after he had been denied food for a good amount of time.
The Florida Department of Children and Families has taken the boy into custody, along with two other children living at the home.
They are still trying to investigate whether the other two children had to face the same type of abuse as the 13-year-old teen. Sadly, in many of these cases, one child is singled out, and this seems to be the case in this household as well. What a sad excuse for a father!
Related articles
- Hearings for starved Wis. girl’s parents postponed (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Teen Girl Tortured, Starved by Family (abcnews.go.com)
- Stepbrother charged with sexual abuse of starved Wis. teen – USA TODAY (usatoday.com)
- Fifteen-Year-Old Girl Weighing 70lbs. Rescued From Years Of Torture And Sexual Abuse (dreamindemon.com)
- Mom who starved her kids faces life (japantimes.co.jp)
- Man Accused Of Having Sex With 12-Year-Old After Being Dared To (dreamindemon.com)
[VIDEO] Racists Rants From TWO Different Sets Of Teens: Disgusting
For those of you who haven’t yet seen the racist rant video, this is the original that went viral and got national attention:
These girls have recently been dismissed from Gainesville High School in Gainesville, Florida and are receiving death threats from multiple people.
Last week, eight police officers were brought to the campus in light of death threats the girls were receiving in response to their videos.
David Shelnutt, the principal at the school, didn’t go into too much detail, but did voice that they were no longer welcome at the school.
The girls and one of their parents issued a formal apology in the paper Monday:
“I am one of the girls who were in the racist video that got posted. I’m writing this so that I can tell people how truly sorry I am. I could never, in a million years, have pictured this happening with me involved. I wasn’t raised to hate people for their race, and I still don’t. I made a horrible decision in being a part of this video … “
The other girl’s mother made this statement in regards to the incident:
Santaluces High School, in Lantana, Florida is now wondering they will have to remove these two students and watch out for death threats. I sure hope so. There should be no leniency when it comes to recording a racist rant (even if it is just for attention) and posting it on the internet.
Looks like Florida has more to be embarrassed about here in 2012. First Casey Anthony, now this?!
Related articles
- [VIDEO] Girl Ranting About White Racist Bitches Gets Paid Back… (practikel.com)
[VIDEO] Woman Left Brain Dead After Being Tasered By Officer When She Attempted To Flee While Handcuffed
Danielle Maudsley. 20. was arrested by Florida Highway Patrol on a suspected hit-and-run that had occurred back in September. After being taken to the Patrol Station, she quickly attempted to flee the scene, while still handcuffed.
Trooper Daniel Cole follows the young woman outside and instead of attempting to run and grab her, retreats to using his taser. Maudsley is struck in the back and collapses to the ground, while hitting her head on the way down. Even though the girl is now brain-dead and the entire incident was caught on a dash cam, Trooper Cole has been cleared on any wrong-doing.
It is unlikely that 20-year-old Danielle will ever wake up, and was found to have cocaine and oxycodone in her system at the time. This may have led to her spontaneous decision to try to run from the troopers. Even is this is the case, Cole should have made a more aggressive attempt to catch the girl (what again, was still handcuffed) before using a weapon that could debilitate the young lady.
Danielle Maudsley’s mother is very irritated with highway Patrol:
‘Tell me that’s not excessive force. I’m not saying she was an angel, but she didn’t deserve that.’
‘He couldn’t reach out and grab her? He was an arm’s length away. My daughter is dead because of this. She won’t come back.’
Cole’s claim is that he was worried about the young girl’s safety because she happened to be running towards a highway. He also explained that he wouldn’t do anything differently, if given the opportunity.
And nationally known use-of-force expert Dave Klinger, a retired Los Angeles police officer and professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said it was an an ‘inappropriate’ police tactic.
Related articles
- Tasered Florida Woman Still in Coma; Cop Cleared (leftperspectives.com)
- Man Brain Dead After ‘Excessive Force’ Used At Jail Overseen By Arpaio (thinkprogress.org)
- justified use of force (disclose.tv)
