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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Arrest Justified Despite Bogus Concern of Threat

(CN) - A tall young man who was Tasered, kicked, handcuffed and arrested after police mistakenly thought he posed a threat to his diminutive mother lost his appeal of a juvenile delinquency charge.

A three-judge panel of the Arkansas Court of Appeals ruled that the juvenile, booked for resisting arrest, "failed to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence at the times and in the manner required" by law.

The young man, described as "tall" and named only as "R.R.," drew the attention of police when he approached "a much smaller woman, who was walking her dog, at night, on a street in a small community," the ruling states.

An officer was "concerned for the woman's safety," according to the ruling.

The woman turned out to be R.R.'s mother, and the two were standing in front of their house.

"R.R. and his mother ended up in the backseat of a patrol car, and R.R. was tasered several times, removed from the backseat, thrown to the ground, tasered again, kicked, handcuffed, and arrested," Judge David Glover wrote.

R.R. was charged with refusing to submit to an arrest.

The lower court found him delinquent because he had wrestled as officers tried to cuff him. It noted that R.R. was "a fine young man" and "an excellent student," by all accounts; "an innocent situation" had "just got completely out of hand."

R.R. was ordered to serve one day in detention, with credit for one day served.

The state appeals court upheld the ruling, saying R.R. failed to pinpoint how the evidence against him was insufficient.

"Here ... there was no specific motion made asserting insufficient evidence at the close of all the evidence," Glover concluded.

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