Taser victim says UHP is 'stonewalling'
He says agency has failed to act on his request to investigate
The motivation, according to the 28-year-old telephone company employee, was to have the UHP act on his 2-month-old request to have the incident investigated.
"There's been no response, no action, no notifying us 'Hey, we're looking at this,"' Massey said. "To us it seems like they're stonewalling it, trying to brush it under the rug so that nothing would happen.
"That's why we decided to take it to YouTube," Massey said of the edited 10-minute video clip captured by UHP trooper John Gardner's dashboard camera that documented Massey's arrest. "We thought it was kind of our civic duty to do this."
Massey said he and his wife were initially told by the secretary at the Vernal UHP office that they couldn't file a complaint against Gardner but eventually met with the trooper's supervisor just days after the incident. The couple has not yet returned the formal complaint form they were given, Massey said.
So far, the couple said they have only received the video — which they had to have unscrambled by one of his co-workers to view — and the dispatch tape. The couple got a copy of Gardner's probable cause statement, which makes no mention of his use of a Taser, when they went to court. They said they have yet to receive the trooper's incident report. "They still haven't given us everything we've requested," Massey said.
Trooper Cameron Roden, a UHP spokesman, said Gardner did document his use of the Taser in his incident report.
"It's definitely in the report," Roden said. "In fact we have a separate Taser deployment form which is part of our form and he has filled it out."
Roden said the Masseys should have received a copy "as part of discovery." The highway patrol will not release the trooper's report on the incident to the public or the media though until an internal investigation is completed, Roden said.
Massey was pulled over Sept. 14 by Gardner on U.S. 40 outside Vernal on suspicion of speeding in a construction zone. During the emotionally charged encounter, Massey can be heard refusing to sign the speeding citation and arguing with Gardner about whether he was actually speeding.
Recent comments
I really think that this problem stems from the mormon faith, which...
Daniel | Jan. 11, 2008 at 11:04 p.m.
I agree totally with UNBELIEVABLE. What does Gardner expect. Your...
Anonymous | Dec. 2, 2007 at 6:37 p.m.
I agree 100%. The first time i saw the video i thought maybe massey...
Critch | Dec. 2, 2007 at 6:05 p.m.
