Deseret News | Hand off Cardall probe

Reader comments
In our opinion: Hand off Cardall probe

Anonymous | 4:30 a.m. June 19, 2009

Amen!!

who watches the wachers? | 5:07 a.m. June 19, 2009

Having another agency conduct the investigation...? Isn't that like having the fox watch the hen house? Right. Maybe you can have the UHP do it. Remember the great job they did investigating the earlier taser incident that received all the You Tube interest? "Uh yeah, we didn't do anything wrong..."

We ought to have a panel of citizens conduct the investigation. Oh, the word for that is 'jury'.

Rube | 7:19 a.m. June 19, 2009

After Benson's article I questions the Deseret News' ability to report on this incident in a neutral manner. Their ties to KSL and the Cardall family are very strong.

Comments continue below

yes, right on | 7:23 a.m. June 19, 2009

There is so much stink coming out of this incident that you are right on. When you listen to the tape of the officer there is an immediate effort by the Hurricane Police Chief and a third officer on the scene to help the officer who tased to come up with a story to explain the death. It seems like the Washington County Sheriff is at the scene doing this if he is that third officer. There needs to be a review board for this kind of thing outside of Washington County where they may be tempted to let the Hurricane Chief and the Sheriff off the hook, not to mention the trigger happy officer who tased twice, once when the victim is flat on his back and "down on the ground" and the Chief admits that he isn't cuffing the victim because he doesn't have cuffs. I've heard and read a lot about the Hurricane Police Department lately. The investigation needs to be intense, impartial, thorough and free of "connections" that appear to exist in this csae.

uncannygunman | 7:27 a.m. June 19, 2009

wwtw is right--the conflict of interest is only half the problem, the other half of the problem is that law enforcement is biased towards taser use. So handing off the investigation to another law enforcement agency is just substituting one whitewasher for another.

I agree | 7:41 a.m. June 19, 2009

Once again, I agree with the position of the DNews, and on this one it is about restoring confidence in law enforcement. If the St. George folks investigating their neighbors/colleagues come out with a "Uh yeah, we and they didn't do anything wrong" the public won't buy it. Empowering law enforcement with guns/stun guns and all the power and authority that we give them also means that they have to be scrutinized in a thorough manner when something ugly like this death occurs. I listened to the officer's recording and feel that if the investigators only listen to it once and say "Yep, nothing here" there will be a huge pubilc outcry and the situation will go from bad to worse. Handing it off to investigators elsewhere will help the public gain confidence.

Joe Watts | 8:25 a.m. June 19, 2009

Hopefully this incident will make the entire community more understanding of bipolar and other mental disorders and give us all a greater understanding and compassion for the thousands of people thus afflicted and who, although not the sons and daughters of prominent people, are and have been suffering from these continual indignities from all of us.

We all need 'special' training in dealing with mental illness, and the law enforcement and justice system need 'very special' training in these matters.

Our society is negligent in not providing law enforcement agencies with reasonable salaries, education, and training for the very critical services they provide the community.

The Deseret News, along with all of us, has been guilty in the past of ignoring similar pleas from 'common folks' and hopefully we will all speak out for those without a voice as well as for those who have a prominent voice.

100 % Agree | 9:39 a.m. June 19, 2009

But I would go one step further and call for an overhaul of tasering and the whole law enforcement,"Us against them" mentality toward the citizenry. Enough of this abusive treatment that is typically reserved for wild and dangerous animals.

Absolutely | 10:07 a.m. June 19, 2009

Anyone who has watched this unfold and who has taken the time to read between the lines realizes that this case requires serious attention and serious results. I agree with you, let's get this in the hands of people at a much higher level than the folks in Washington County. Perhaps the AG's office, the UHP, or the Governor's Office should do their own investigation of the investigaation. And to the idea of public scrutiny, I agree, we need to see everything that they are seeing. Why did the officers not secure the scene as a crime scene? On the tape is sounds like everybody left the scene. Was there any evidence left after that? Why didn't the UHP come in to secure the scene after the fact, using the Cardall vehicle as the epicenter and studying the situation. I bet no one took photographs at all.

No photos? | 10:50 a.m. June 19, 2009

Absolutely, I agree with you that someone else needs to investigate this other than Washington County, but there's no way they didn't take photos. Where the guy was when he got tased, etc., would be important evidence. Not taking photos would rise above incompetence to something else.

yes des news | 12:48 p.m. June 19, 2009

I see it the same way. Those tapes leave way many questions about how this went down. I assume the Sheriff is there because the Hurricane guys went too far from Hurricane. Hurricane's training is probably not as good as the Sheriffs. The voices on the tape raise all sorts of concerns about cover up. They immediately begin a "cya" to put cause of death away from themselves for tasing him a second time while on the ground, even tasering him at all with the "did he come at you" and "he came right at you" stuff where passersby said he was frozen in place.

Anonymous | 1:14 p.m. June 19, 2009

I tend to agree with your position, but your second reason, "intense media coverage," illustrates a hypocrisy that has crept into American news media practices. While you in the news media like to portray yourselves as objective reporters of facts, you too often appear to be trying to shape the public thinking about the story. So now your multiple, repetitive, redundant reports of a tragic event are a reason to require new investigators? Maybe the Deseret News should restrict itself to reporting "new news" instead of churning up the same facts in order to create "intense media coverage."

PETA - | 3:25 p.m. June 19, 2009

re: Enough of this abusive treatment that is typically reserved for wild and dangerous animals.
----------------
Animal Control Officers can't just walk in and Tase animals, they must tranquilze them.
Tasing is considered a crime under cruelty to animal laws.

Police Respect?.... | 3:31 p.m. June 19, 2009

I have yet to hear a single word of defense or justification for the need of that second tasing when the "suspect" was already "...down on the ground...down on the ground...down on the ground...down on the ground...etc!!!!"

Hurricane's lawyer | 4:10 p.m. June 19, 2009

Hurricane was in such a rush to lawyer up on this, and indeed, within days the lawyer declared that no wrongdoing had occurred. But he didn't tell us then that indeed there was a second tasing, and clearly an unjustified tasing as the victim was on the ground and a second officer was just feet away. What is Hurricane getting for its early effort to lawyer up? What are the tax payers of Hurricane getting? Why hasn't the officer who tased him to death and the other officer come forward and talked to the public and explained all this. Because their lawyer is telling them to "stay down" "get down" "stay down" "shut up."

All emotion few facts | 4:58 p.m. June 19, 2009

Let the investigation work its way through.

So far you have lots of emotional hearsay, and one recording to go on.

Bottom line is the cops got a frantic call from a near hysterical woman that some naked guy is running around on the road. Cops arrive and order him to the ground repeatedly (which will keep him out of traffic) and he refuses. They they use NON-LETHAL force to disable him, but in this case it turns out that he dies.

Tragic, but certainly not an intentional infliction of lethal force on a compliant citizen.

Cardall may have been a nice guy most of the time, but bipolar folks can do all sorts of irrational violent things. The cops were dealing with a total nut job at this point, not a rational person. Their options are limited, and they chose NON-LETHAL means, and it turned out that he died anyway.

Let's see if the investigation shows if their actions were in line with policy, and appropriate.

re:All emotion few facts | 4:58 | 5:26 p.m. June 19, 2009

Tasers are not considered "NON-LETHAL".
They are actually - "LESS-THAN-LETHAL".

A different view point | 5:35 p.m. June 19, 2009

Would we be all up in arms if this fellows name was Juan Garcia instead of Cardall?

Ironic | 7:24 p.m. June 20, 2009

When the shoe is on the other foot the police are now remaining silent to which they would reply to any of their suspects, what do you have to hide? If you didn't do anything wrong then talk to us. Why do you need to hire an attorney if your innocent?

Only in government | 7:29 p.m. June 20, 2009

can you call something that has killed hundreds of people non lethal.

Unbelievable!

Interesting... | 9:59 p.m. June 21, 2009

The Cardall family says that they released the tapes because Stirba "omitted numerous highly significant facts, which we feel the public should know."

That is a rather self-serving comment when you view how KSL's coverage of the story changed to omit a highly significant fact. During the original coverage there was an interview with a woman who witnessed the incident and mentioned that Mr. Cardall was naked. Beginning with the first newscast the very next morning, that part of the interview had been edited out and was not reported again. This appears to be an effort by KSL - where Mr. Cardall's Father Duane is the editorial director - to influence public opinion regarding the incident. Reporting that Mr. Cardall had removed his clothes and was walking the side of the road is important information that should be included in all coverage of the incident.

I'm sorry that Mr. Cardall is no longer with us, but news reporting must be factual and non-biased. KSL clearly ignored those standards in covering this story.

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