You may recall my story last month about the Winnfield, La. African American man who died after a white police officer tasered him 9 times after he was already in custody. Well that police officer, Scott Nugent has now been indicted by a Winn Parrish Grand Jury for Pike’s murder.
Ruling in a racially explosive case that some forensic experts have described as police torture, a grand jury in the small Louisiana town of Winnfield indicted a white police officer yesterday on charges of manslaughter and official malfeasance for repeatedly shocking a handcuffed black suspect with a Taser device, resulting in the man’s death due to cardiac arrest.
After two days of closed testimony, Winn Parish district attorney Chris Nevils announced that the grand jury had indicted Scott Nugent, 21, for the death last January of Baron “Scooter” Pikes, 21, while in police custody. Two other Winnfield police officers who were present during the incident were not charged. […]
“It is our intention to show at trial that Mr Nugent caused the death of Baron Pikes by ‘Tasing’ him multiple times, unnecessarily and in violation of Louisiana law, and by failing to get him medical attention when it was apparent he needed it,” Nevils said in a statement. “In a civilised society, abuse by those who are given great authority cannot be tolerated.”
By indicting him for manslaughter the Grand Jury is essentially saying that Nugent had no premeditated intent to kill Mr. Pikes, and that his actions did not show a depraved indifference to the life of Baron Pikes, even though he continued to taser Baron Pikes after he had stopped responding to the shocks and was clearly unconscious. Still we should, I suppose, be happy he was indicted at all. As for the other two officers that were present I believe at the very least they are guilty of criminal negligence in Pikes’ death since presumably they could have prevented Nugent from continuing to shock Pikes with 50,000 bolts of electricity after he was already in custody. But then, what do I know.
Worst case, Nugent faces a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison. I will be shocked if he gets a sentence that severe. Indeed, my guess is that unless the media spotlight continues to shine on this case, it’s very possible that Nugent will be offered a plea bargain for a greatly reduced sentence with minimal jail time, or even a suspended sentence with probation. Trial juries are notoriously reluctant (and this apples to places North, South, East and West) to find police officers guilty in cases where the officer has killed someone, especially if the victims are black (recall the recent case of the Sean Bell in New York who was about to be married when he was killed by a 50 bullet police barrage for no good reason). If this case does go to trial, expect Mr. Pikes and his family to be dragged through the slime by Nugent’s defense counsel.
