PrintOct. 15--A Central City family is considering legal action against the local police department after a hearing-impaired member of the family was shocked with a Taser and arrested without an interpreter being present.
Central City police charged Allen Hearld, 54, on Monday with menacing, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, said Police Chief Brent Roberson. A charge of assaulting a police officer may also be pending, Roberson said.
Roberson said, according to dispatch logs, Central City police responded Monday evening to a domestic disturbance at the Hearld home. The dispatch log states Hearld's wife, Amy Hearld, had called police and said Allen Hearld had a lead pipe in his hand and was threatening to kill one of her dogs.
Allen Hearld has been deaf since birth but can hear with the use of hearing aids and can also lip read and speak American Sign Language, said his wife. Amy Hearld said she called police because her husband was angry after one of the dogs chewed one of his hearing aids.
Hearld said three police officers arrived, two of whom knew her husband, and began trying to calm him.
Amy Hearld said she asked for an interpreter to be called to the house because Allen Hearld couldn't understand the officers.
"I purposely asked them three times while they stood in my front yard to get him an interpreter to make sure that he could understand what was being said," Amy Hearld said. "If they're not right face-to-face with him, he can't understand or read your lips."
Roberson said his officers' reports indicate differently.
"The only thing I'm aware of from when I talked to my officers was that he could hear a little bit, he could read lips and he could understand what was going on," Roberson said.
At first, Roberson said, it seemed like Hearld was complying.
"He was told to calm down, quit yelling, quit cussing and to go back in the house. At one point he did, but then he came back out," Roberson said.
Amy Hearld said that her husband did come out again and became disruptive.
"It was loud and he was angry and it escalated," Amy Hearld said. "A deaf person raises their voice. They don't talk like you and I do."
Hearld said she also told officers that she was worried about Allen Hearld being on his feet because he had broken his ankles in March and they were still painful.
Roberson said Allen Hearld was on the porch jumping up and down trying to re-injure himself. That's when officers handcuffed him and placed him under arrest.
"He came out again, wouldn't listen and they arrested him for disorderly conduct," Roberson said. "He was out on the concrete trying to re-break his ankles."
Allen Hearld struggled with officers as he was carried to a police cruiser and placed in the back, Roberson said.
Once inside the cruiser, Roberson said, he began kicking at the window and door.
Roberson said Allen Hearld also kicked an officer, which is why they are considering filing an assault charge.
That's when officers decided to use a Taser to subdue him.
A police Taser has two functions, Roberson said. It can be fired so that two projectiles penetrate the skin and deliver an electrical shock to incapacitate the target.
It can also pressed against a person and be used to "drive-stun," delivering the same shock against the skin. The shock doesn't stun a person, but it is painful enough to cause the person being shocked to submit.
"It's kind of like a stun gun used on a central area. They get shocked, but it doesn't last as long (and doesn't incapacitate)," Roberson said. "We use it long enough to get someone to comply and then we put it up.
"He was drive-stunned to get him to quit kicking the back door off the hinges. With a guy who's had two broken ankles, that's also to keep him from injuring himself."
Through his wife, Allen Hearld said police drive-stunned him twice in the cruiser.
He also said he was drive-stunned three more times by jail personnel at the Muhlenberg County Detention Center.
Amy Hearld said there are six pairs of marks consistent with drive-stun use on his legs.
Amy Hearld said her husband was not resisting officers, but was trying to tell them the handcuffs were hurting him.
As for his kicking the door, she said she didn't know if he did that.
"I don't know if he kicked the car because I couldn't see it," Amy Hearld said.
Had an interpreter been called, Amy Hearld said, this could have all been avoided.
"He didn't understand why he was being arrested," Amy Hearld said, adding that the family plans to sue the police department. "We are in the process of getting an attorney to take it further."
Roberson said after reviewing officer reports and testimony, he stands by their actions.
"From everything I've seen that they've done, they handled it according to policy and appropriately," Roberson said. "When you give a guy four or five chances to calm down and go inside, that's almost going above and beyond. They tried to protect him the whole time."
Dariush Shafa, 691-7302 dshafa@messenger-inquirer.com
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