Sgt. Steve Smith has been fired by East Bank, West Virginia after the city council learned that he had used a taser on a pregnant teenager and a firefighter. Smith was still on probation as a new officer after joining the Kanawha County department less than a year earlier.
Smith is a friend of the mother of Candice White, 18, and was playing with the taser at their home. White said that Smith used it on her leg a number of times on a low setting. A volunteer firefighter said that Smith used it on him as part of the firefighter’s birthday celebration. What happened to the concept of a nice card?
Obviously, the liability in such juvenile exhibitions can be quite high for a city, particularly in the use on a pregnant girl.
A Florida officer was recently fired for using his taser as a fun party item, here.
For the full story, click here.
Greetings! I’ve been reading your site for a long time now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Austin Tx! Just wanted to mention keep up the good work!
Professor Turley – it’s been four years but Steve’s case against the Town related to this event went to trial last week in Kanawha County, WV. I represented him. He won. There was much, much more to this than the information you initially reported. The internet is “forever” so I didn’t want the last word on this to go unspoken after he was able to finally tell his side to a jury.
JB Akers
Charleston, WV
Okay, well the teenager was being just as stupid as he was. It’s not like she was pulled over and then tased. They were all acting like morons.
Were they all drunk or what? The girl must have been, especially if she allowed herself to be tasered.
I wonder what her child will turn out like! Hopefully, neither of those guys are the father or the poor kid is doomed!
rafflaw:
Agreed. My favorite story is that just before the State Championship game, the town officially changed its name to “West Bank” just for the day. I suspect if Professor Turley had the same jumper at Quigley North he could have gotten DC to change it’s name to “Turley Town” for at least the afternoon. I do like the alliteration.
Mespo,
You are right about Jerry West. He had one of the sweetest jump shots I have ever seen. He wasn’t a bad GM in the NBA either.
Shouldn’t the police just assume that all female teenagers are pregers in WV????
East Bank, West Virginia was the town Jerry West played for as a high schooler. I bet “Zeke from Cabin Creek” never tasered anyone but he did light up quite a few defenders in his day.