Innocent Man Assaulted by Off Duty Sheriffs
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4/30/2010
I had several great experiences and one very horrible one.
Ill start by telling you that I am a college educated, white male in my mid/late 20's, had never been arrested in my life and have never acted aggresively or disrespectfully towards anyone. In fact, I am a physical therapy assistant/LMT so most of my day I spend helping people heal from pain and injuries, etc.
Around 2005, I was at a concert in Scottsdale for my birthday and went outside to look for my friends during the middle of the show. Before I knew it, a security/off-duty sheriff comes up behind me in an attempt to handcuff me because some girl had pointed in my direction claiming that I had called them a name. I had not, but before I or anyone was given an opportunity to explain or say anything I was being shoved up against a vehicle, tazered to the ground several times(until I nearly passed out) and then assaulted by a group (acting as a mob) of security/off-duty sherrifs. All they could say was "stop resisting" (maybe so that it appeared to bystanders that I had been acting out of line). There were plenty of witnesses to the event but none that I knew or could later summon to a court with video or any evidence to prove my innocence. Long story short, a completely innocent human being was assaulted, repeatedly electrocuted and then charged with resisting arrest, aggravated assault and trespassing (I have my receipt for the show) and several other charges-all of which were made up.
Justice was not served and I did not have the money for a proper lawyer(not appointed by the court/working for the same gov) nor any evidence/testimoney that could challenge that of a sheriff's word/badge. I plea bargained to avoid serving jail time on the account of my (once) clean record and had no choice but to acccept this or face taking more serious crimes to court with only my word and honor-which wouldnt have sufficed after reading the lies and all the cooroborated stories they had conjured up to support their brutal actions. I believe to them it was just a way let out their frustrations and not be held accountable because they were off duty-almost like a game-bc it was urban music show and because they could get away with it. I have already suffered at the hands of out of control/above the law security and sherrifs for which I doubt there will be any justice. From what I understand, especially with the latest incident where they attacked one of their own in a similar situation, that these are not isolated incidents. Believe it or not, these kinds of things do happen to good people and very rarely are they vindicated.
As a side note, my grandfather in my home state, who helped raise me for a short time, was a (now retired) police officer and who had witnessed corruption during his service to the public. If only one person would have been taping the events I would have been let go, there would have been a lawsuit and several of those pretending to defend the public would have been fired. Though difficult for me to express and I have tried to forget about it, these statements are the truth and the only way I could communicate my horrible expereinces was to write about it for others to be aware of...Thank You for listening.
Bruce | Chandler, AZ