Police Justified in Tasering San Francisco Officer

The city of Antioch has responded to a civil rights lawsuit filed by a San Francisco police inspector who contends that Antioch officers illegally broke into her house and shocked her with a stun gun her after a dispute with a tenant she was evicting.

Marvetia Lynn Richardson and two other women arrested on suspicion of resisting arrest during the incident filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco last summer. In addition to compensation for medical bills and emotional damages, Richardson is seeking lost wages. She contends that the San Francisco Police Department placed her on unpaid leave after her arrest.

Antioch City Attorney Lynn Tracy Nerland said Wednesday that the police department had probable cause to enter the house and that Richardson's arrest was justified.

"Police were responding to a 911 call where someone's life was threatened," said Nerland, adding she is limited in what she can say about pending litigation. "There is another side to this story, and that will come out in the litigation."

Police were called to Richardson's Mokelumne Drive home after midnight on June 7, 2007, by Bridget Reed, who was renting rooms for herself and teen daughter and was in the process of getting evicted. Reed had called 911 to complain about noise; Richardson was at home entertaining two female friends and their children.

After talking to Richardson inside the house, the officers were outside and heard screams and loud sounds indicating a struggle or fight, according to court documents. Reed and her daughter ran outside, saying that the teen daughter of one of Richardson's guests had threatened to shoot them.

Nerland noted that police had been called to the house more than 30 times in previous months.

Richardson says officers broke down her front door, and confronted her as she stood in her bedroom doorway. The lawsuit says she was calmly answering officers' questions when she was suddenly shocked with a Taser.

Nerland said Richardson was partially concealed by the bedroom door and was shocked in accordance with police department policy because she refused multiple commands to come out from behind the door and show that she was not armed.

"The Antioch Police Department permits use of an electronic control device to overcome resistance from dangerous, violent or potentially violent subjects," Nerland said in a written statement. "The use of these devices is governed by a department policy that seeks to minimize injuries to officers and suspects."

Charges against Richardson and her guests were dismissed this year after a Contra Costa County judge ruled police entered the house illegally, according to the lawsuit. Richardson further contends in the lawsuit that the incident represents an Antioch police policy to harass African-American residents out of certain neighborhoods, a charge the city denies.

Earlier this year, the Antioch Police Department was named in a federal class-action lawsuit that contended the department's Community Action Team is targeting and harassing African-Americans living in subsidized housing. The suit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and three other Bay Area nonprofit civil rights organizations. In a written statement, the city "emphatically" rejected the allegations.

Reach Malaika Fraley at [email protected]