J.R.

J.R. had prior convictions for some drug related offenses about ten years before the night in question. On the night of his arrest, he had a single car accident with a tree and a block wall at the back of a house in a small tract of homes in the desert. The owner of that house claimed that J.R. had threatened him with a gun when he offered assistance. He called 911 and told them about the accident and the "I have a gun" threat, and three units arrived on the scene--a Sergeant and two patrol deputies. However, when they checked the vehicle, there was no one inside. They began scanning the desert for the driver. One of them said that he saw someone walking out about three hundred yards into the desert, and yelled for him to stop. The person kept moving. He and the other two deputies began yelling "Put your hands up; get on the ground," repeating it over and over as they began running toward this person, with their guns drawn. They did not announce that they were law enforcement officers.

They approached him from three different directions, and the Sergeant shined his flashlight attached to his gun at J.R. and told him to freeze. He was about thirty feet away. He, and the other two deputies claimed that J.R. got into a shooting stance, and the Sergeant, who was closest to J.R. testified that he thought he saw a gun in J.R.'s hands. The deputy who was farthest away began firing at J.R. He saw him turn and fall, and all three of them ran to him. One took out his Taser and "dry tased" him four times on his lower back. This location just happened to be bleeding, and it was later determined that J.R. had been shot in the back with a .45 caliber round from the deputy's gun. He could not move as commanded, as he was paralyzed.

One of the deputy's turned on his tape recorder when J.R. was screaming while being tased, and the prosecutor offered that as evidence of the "criminal threats", which are a strike, and the alleged struggle with J.R. was offered as evidence of his "resisting an executive officer" charge, which is a felony.

The prosecutor had offered a low term prison sentence. J.R. refused it.

During my cross-examination of the deputy who shot J.R., I asked him to explain to the jury how J.R. was shot in the back if he was facing him while shooting. He had already confirmed my question whether he was shooting rapid fire, i.e. one shot right after the other.

The deputy blurted out that he had fired a couple of shots, and J.R. turned and began to run, and that he kept shooting. Of course, he had never told that story. He then realized what he had said, and tried to retract his testimony. It was too late.

Although the jury wondered why J.R. had an accident, and why he was acting so strangely that night, they still could not find him guilty when it was clear that the deputies story simply could not be true. It was a factual impossibility, which was explained by the deputy who did the shooting. He admitted that he had not told his courtroom version because he knew that he might get fired and sued, and that the county would probably get sued.

J.R. was acquitted on all counts.