Woman, 30, Tasered eight times by Zion cops

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Woman, 30, Tasered eight times by Zion cops
Disregarded commands in fight investigation


Woman, 30, Tasered eight times by Zion cops
CRAIG PETERSON
Lake County News Sun
Tuesday, February 26, 2008

-- Responding to a 9-1-1 hang-up call, police used a Taser eight times to subdue a woman who disregarded their orders.

Eric Hill and Nathan Hucker arrived at 3102 23rd St. on Feb. 20 to find the apartment in disarray with three women present. One of the apartment's tenants was bleeding from a head wound.

» Click to enlarge image

The TASER C2 is the standard police issue in many police departments throughout the country.
(AP File)
According to police reports, the other tenant, 30-year-old Farrah F. Evans, allegedly inflicted the wound by striking her roommate with a vase during an altercation.

To determine what happened at the apartment, the officers attempted to conduct separate interviews and directed one of the tenants to go into a bedroom.

That's when the trouble started.

Ignoring the officers' commands, Evans followed the roommate into the bedroom and was hit by a Taser dart fired by Hucker -- but with no apparent effect. Evans got inside the bedroom and closed the door, bracing her 6-foot, 280-pound body against the door.

Hucker tried kicking the door open but could not.

Using his shoulder as a ram, Hill forced the door open enough to get inside by himself. Hill hit Evans in the abdomen with a Taser dart, causing her to slump forward, but she remained on her feet.

Hill pulled her down to the floor, but she resisted his attempts to handcuff her. Hill hit her with another Taser shot.

As more officers arrived and entered the room, Evans continued to resist. This time she was given a "contact stun" on her back, where the Taser is deployed directly on the body.

She still wouldn't place her hands behind her back, so she was hit a fifth time with a Taser, a second contact stun between her shoulder blades.

A squad of officers were trying to force her hands behind her back, but she continued resisting. After she was hit with a third contact stun in the back, the sixth Taser shot, she was finally handcuffed.

Police said she continued to act violently as officers tried escorting her out of the apartment. She was Tasered a seventh time and continued to refuse to comply. Officers reported they were running low on Taser cartridges.

In the struggle to remove Evans from the apartment, she struck Sgt. Alan Lother in the knee with her lower leg. She fell to the floor and refused to stand.

As officers forcibly lifted her to her feet, she continued to struggle. She was hit with an eighth Taser shot in the lower back, causing her to fall again.

Police finally carried her from the residence.

During a later interview at the police station, Hill said she couldn't remember the initial fight or the arrest because she "blanked out," she said, after "smoking three blunts (marijuana joints)" and "drinking a whole bottle of tequila."

At Evans' request, she was taken to Vista Medical Center East, Waukegan, for shoulder and back pain before being booked on domestic battery, aggravated battery, aggravated resisting to a peace officer, and aggravated battery to a peace officer.