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Lawsuit filed over Uintah YouTube Taser incident

HURRAH! Good for Massey standing up for himself and the rights of all Utah citizens not to be tasered indiscriminately.

Personally, I'd love to see the UHP get nailed on this one.

However, I don't think what Gardner did was necessarily illegal.

All signing the citation means is that you acknowledge receiving the citation and agree to appear when required.

While you don't have to sign it, I'm pretty sure the cop has the authority to take you in if you refuse to sign -- precisely because by not signing you are not agreeing to appear at that future date and time.

Perhaps Gardner should be tasered "justifiably" and taunted while he is lying helplessly on the ground. Excessive force WAS used and Massey should have filed the lawsuit initially instead of only wanting a just outcome. In this day and age there is no "just" outcome unless you force the issue. An apology is too much to give freely, you have to file a lawsuit to get it.

Stener, apparently you didn't watch the video. It shows that there most certainly was a reason for the officer to zap the guy, and I'm sure any judge in any court will see it that way.

Massey tried to grab his 15 minutes of fame and now can't let it go. Dude should have just signed the ticket and then documented and got photos and faught it the way a normal man would. Instead he choose this and I hope he gets the book thrown at him to it's fullest extent.

Why are people so stupid. He needs to be sued by the UHP for putting an officers life in danger by wandering all over the side of the road. Just obey the law, and shut up and follow orders and everybody wins.

Gardner needs to be tased and kicked off the police force. Despite UHP's spin doctoring, the incident is a clear example of police brutality.

I think Massey was being defiant and un-cooperative and deserved to be tasered.

The death Tuesday of a 29-year-old, otherwise-healthy Minnesota man Tuesday under similar circumstances certainly ought to be a red-flag for law-enforcement agencies using tasers. He died immediately after being tasered by a group of 5 state troopers. He had just crashed his car and was described by the 5 troopers as being "uncooperative" (sound familiar), although they declined to be specific. A recent study showed that from 2003-2005, 36 deaths occurred shortly after tasering, although about half of those turned out to have other complicating factors. It would seem to me that tasering ought to be classified as "deadly force", since it could certainly result in same.

In Massey's case, the video seems to show that he fell partially into the actual roadway, where he could have been hit by an oncoming car (even on the shoulder, there are numerous incidents of troopers or others being hit by passing cars). To make it worse, the trooper leaves him there, in the roadway for quite awhile. If that is accurate, it shows additional disregard for Massey's safety by Trooper Gardner. Massey actually got himself up out of the roadway with no help from the trooper after he was cuffed.

We all need to stand up for our rights, what the officer did was plain and simple abuse. Why are non violent offenders being delt with in a violent way? Fight corruption!

They should haye put the UHP cop behind a desk for a year until he learned his Job; and some control and procedure!

I don't think Massey has anything to stand on. The whole situation is crazy. The trooper has no idea what the intention of Massey getting out of his car is and when he goes to walk back to the vehicle. The troopers see a lot of crazy things during a day. Even if Massey is the greatest guy on the earth the trooper doesn't know that and when the suspect gets out of his vehicle and refuses to obey the officer he was playing with fire.

The whole situation should have been handled better, even on Massey's part.

In today's sue happy society this doesn't surprise me.

What a nut job. Sue sue sue.. the American way!! The kid put his hands in his pockets and then expects the officer to do nothing. Who does that? The kid has a temper problem and obviously a greed problem.

That's what's wrong with our society....blame it on someone else. I'm with the UHP trooper on this. When Massey is turning back to his vehicle you can't see his left hand. Who knows if he has a gun or some other weapon? Likewise with the wife....just because you're pregnant doesn't mean you can't shoot a gun. Step up and accept your actions. Just because you sign the ticket doesn't mean you're accepting guilt.

The UHP officer gave no notice that he was going to taser the guy. He abused his authority in this situation not only by tasering the guy but by taunting him afterwards.(I could only imagine what would have happened if Massey would have taunted the officer like he did to him.) The UHP was wrong in siding with their officer, there shouldn't ever be double standards when dealing with the public.

I believe that those who support the UHP and Officer Gardner, will NEVER admit to execessive force charges. To them, there is no such thing. Theey will always 'spin' the victim into the potentially dangerous criminal. While dangers exist, this was OBVIOUSLY not the case.

The 'fingers in the pocket' excuse is plain stupid. If Gardner had a problem, he could have simply said, "take your hands out of your pocket" and the problem would be solved. His lying to another officer proves his guilt.

I usually don't like the typical authority-driven LEO, but
you Monday-morning quarterbacks weren't in the situation,
with split seconds to make a judgment.
While we do expect a higher standard from law officers, and
UHP does need to improve training in use of tasers and
the even more powerful weapons, patience and communication, . . .
kids like Jared need improved training in the greater lessons
of life, like humility and good judgment. It's not smart to be
a vigilante when The Man has the force.

Even the edited version of the dash-cam he posted on YouTube show how much he was out to make that trooper behave.
If we let everyone mouth off to our LEOs, I fear for other
youngsters getting worse in lesser situations, as officers get
fed up with mouthy kids.

They are both complete and total idiots. The cop needs to be fired and Massey needs to grow up and move on!

He got what he asked for. Time for people in Utah to support law enforcement. The guy used exremely poor judgement. Go ahead and give the officer a reason to taze you and he will.

Good for Massey. As this UHP review demonstrates(as have numerous similar reviews), the police and their review boards are only interested in shielding the police from criticism and the consequences of their actions; a just review is never a possibility. Excessive force and police misbehavior will only stop when lawsuits start exacting a high enough financial toll to force the issue. The police will never police themselves voluntarily.

These men and women who serve us every day by protecting us, also deserve our respect. When we fail to show respect for them, we deserve anything that they give us. They serve us and protect us. We should also be looking out for them.