Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Indictment in Winnfield taser death

Via TAPPED!, the Chicago Tribune reports that the Winn Parish District Attorney Chris Nevils is going to seek and indictment against the officer, Scott Nugent, who tasered Baron "Scooter" Pikes to death.

Brief history of the case:
Pikes, 21, died Jan. 17 within 39 minutes of being arrested on a drug possession warrant. Winnfield police claimed Pikes told them he suffered from asthma and was high on crack cocaine and PCP, but the local coroner found that Pikes had been healthy and had no drugs in his system. He ruled the death a homicide.
Yeah, the officer tasered him nine times in fourteen minutes, twice while Pikes was already unconscious. That sounds like murder to me. I'm sure Officer Nugent is going to use the "I had no idea what I was doing was dangerous" defense, and he'll probably get acquitted.

BTW, brief history of the corruption present in North Louisiana. I know we are all used to reports of the corruption here, so it's nice to see the whole state represented.
Nevils' predecessor as district attorney committed suicide after he came under suspicion for skimming $200,000 from his office accounts and extorting bribes from criminal suspects. The former police chief, who was Nugent's father, also killed himself, after losing a bitterly-contested election campaign marred by fraud allegations. The current police chief is a convicted drug offender who was pardoned by former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, who is currently serving a federal prison sentence for corruption while in office.

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