posted March 24, 2008
A North Georgia man told a Federal Court jury on Monday he was tased repeatedly by Chattanooga Police Officer Officer Curtis Penny, though he said he was not resisting arrest.
Ashley Johnson said, "It felt like lightning going through me. . . I thought I was going to die."
He is asking $100,000 in the lawsuit against the city of Chattanooga.
The incident happened Halloween night 2004 at Chattanooga Food and Drink on Brainerd Road.
Cedric Mills said he was there with Mr. Johnson that night, and he said they commented when a cute girl passed by. He said the girl would not stop and talk to them.
He said bouncers came over and told Mr. Johnson he would have to leave, saying he had thrown a piece of ice.
The witness said he told the bouncers he "didn't do nothing," and Mr. Johnson was holding his hands up, saying, "What did I do?" He said Mr. Johnson was forced out into a lobby area and he was not allowed to follow him so he did not see what happened next.
Mr. Johnson said his pants had dropped down and he reached down to pull them up. He said someone then yelled, "He's got a gun." He said the bouncers began choking him and Officer Penny came in and "clicked" his taser.
Mr. Johnson said he did not have a gun, only a small pocket knife he uses in his work at UPS.
The Rocky Face man said Officer Penny first tased him in the back of the neck. He said, "It was real painful." He said he was helpless to do any kind of resistance after that.
He said a second tase "about knocked me down." He said he was tased again and knocked to the floor.
The witness said he has six metal plates in his face from a work accident and, "If I had been tased there I would probably have died."
He said he was taken to Erlanger Hospital, but he said Officer Penny would not allow him to tell the nurse what happened.
Attorney Mike Raulston said the Erlanger report shows no injuries. He said Mr. Johnson later went to a Dalton hospital and its report lists taser hits to the neck, back and an elbow as well as a hemorrhage to the eye.
Mr. Johnson said he heard Officer Penny at the hospital talking to a girlfriend saying he was "stressed out." He said he "was already under investigation for excessive force."
Mr. Johnson said he mainly avoids Chattanooga now. He said, "I don't know what the police up there are going to do to me."
He said when the charge against him went to court, it was dismissed by the judge.
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