A neighborhood dispute over a dog ended up with a Jones County deputy tasing a man who was recording him on his cell phone.
It happened back in February, when Deputy Wesley Ransom responded to Shady Springs Drive due to a dog complaint. That’s according to an incident report from the Jones County Sheriff’s Office.
In the report, Ransom writes when he first made contact with dog owner Luis Marmolejo, he “immediately became highly agitated” and began yelling obscenities.
Marmolejo and his girlfriend, Krista Wood, say their next-door neighbor called animal control because their dog attacked her cat.
Marmolejo says he was upset at first, but later calmed down. He says he grabbed his cell phone to video record the situation in their front yard.
He says he walked off their front porch to video the car tag of the animal control officer’s truck.
In the video, you hear the animal control officer warn him to get away from the vehicle. The video shows Marmolejo walk back toward Ramson and others standing in the yard, and say, “I’m not doing anything.”
Ransom tells Marmolejo to go inside the house.
Marmolejo says once Ransom touched his Taser on his belt, he began to back up toward the house, but did not stop recording.
In the video, Ransom yells for Marmolejo to put the phone down and put his hands behind his back.
Marmolejo keeps walking back toward the house.
Then Ransom reaches for Marmolejo’s phone and as Marmolejo turns his back at the top step on their porch, Ransom Tases him.
Marmolejo says after that, he was arrested. In the video, you hear Ransom say, “I did not want to have to do this to you, Lu.”
Marmolejo and Wood say their treatment was unfair and they’re now seeking legal counsel for his upcoming court hearing, June 2. He is charged with obstructing a law-enforcement officer.
Ransom and Jones County Sheriff Butch Reece both declined comment Wednesday.
Several federal court rulings have said that people have the right to record video of law-enforcement officers in public, as long as they don’t obstruct or interfere with the officers.
(© 2016 WMAZ)
http://www.13wmaz.com/news/man-tased-at-his-home-caught-on-video/201718713
sue those assholes right to hell.