Lawyer for Tasered Chatsworth woman criticizes DA

Published 6:08 pm Thursday, June 27, 2019

A lawyer for an 87-year-old Chatsworth woman who police Tasered said Thursday a report from the district attorney defending the actions of police officers will have no effect on a civil rights case he expects to file against the city.

Attorney Marcus Morris of the Dalton law firm Morris and Dean criticized District Attorney Bert Poston for his letter to Chatsworth Police Chief Josh Etheridge which said Poston “found no fault with your actions of the actions of your officers.”

“The district attorney is not an expert in the use of force,” Morris said. “The chief of police is not an expert. We spoke with an expert and I wish the district attorney had done the same. I think the conduct of the officers was wrong. I think they totally escalated the situation which was uncalled for, and because of that, Miss (Martha) Al-Bishara has suffered tremendously for their actions.”

Morris said he expects to file a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Rome in either August or September claiming officers inflicted “cruel and unusual punishment” contrary to the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Al-Bishara was 87 at the time of the incident, which happened on Aug. 10 of last year. She was charged with criminal trespass and obstruction of an officer after she went onto the Boys & Girls Club’s property in Chatsworth. Poston will not pursue further charges against Al-Bishara.

Police were called after Al-Bishara went into a portion of the lot across the street from her home with a kitchen knife.

Family members said Al-Bishara was cutting dandelions for a salad. Police bodycam footage of the incident shows police Chief Josh Etheridge taking a plastic bag filled with what looks like weeds from Al-Bishara’s hands after Officer Steven Marshall used his Taser, striking Al-Bishara in the chest and stomach.

In Poston’s review of the incident, he said officers could have waited for Al-Bishara and family members to arrive, but he said it was “not unreasonable” to use the Taser to disarm her and take her into custody.

Etheridge has declined to comment on the incident since Al-Bishara’s attorneys have been seeking a settlement from the city’s insurance provider, Trident Public Risk Solutions. Attorney Jeffrey Dean, also of Morris and Dean, has said the insurance company has made a “very nominal offer.” Multiple messages left for representatives of Trident have not been returned.

In preparation for the lawsuit, Dean said the firm consulted with William M. Harmening, a 37-year law enforcement veteran and an adjunct professor of forensic psychology and criminology at Washington University in St. Louis. Dean provided a copy of an “abbreviated analysis” that Harmening wrote on the incident based on written police reports and the bodycam video.

Harmening wrote that the Taser use was “unreasonable and excessive under the circumstances.” He noted the manufacturer of the Taser’s “warning that there are four populations of people who are at an elevated risk of injury or death from a Taser strike — pregnant women, small children, the elderly and those with impaired heart function. With these populations, the use of the Taser should be avoided at all costs.” Among his qualifications, Harmening said he is certified by Axon Inc., the manufacturer of the Taser, in “Taser evidence recovery and analysis.”

“There was nothing about Al-Bishara’s appearance or behavior that would have demonstrated a threat to the officers or anyone else,” Harmening wrote. “She was simply a very elderly woman who was cutting dandelions with a steak knife. In fact, given her obvious age and physical condition, it would have been quite impossible for Al-Bishara in this situation to even pose a threat to three well-trained and experienced police officers.”

“The manner in which the Taser was targeted at Al-Bishara’s chest was also inappropriate, and given her age and physical condition, could be interpreted by a jury as lethal force,” he wrote.