A while back I posted this story about Lona Varner, an 86 year old grandmother. Ms Varner was a past stroke victim. On December 23, 2009, Ms. Varner, bedridden and on oxygen, after a 911 call was placed for medical assistance, received a visit from ten (10) El Reno, Oklahoma police officers who proceeded to taser her (several times), cut off her oxygen supply by stepping on her oxygen hose and put her grandson (the person who made the call) in handcuffs and arrest him after he yelled “Don’t tase my Granny!”
The police report claimed she pulled a knife on the ten police officers so that all ten of were in such danger from her that the lead officer felt compelled to order the use of a taser to subdue her. Ms. Varner and her grandson had a different version of events and filed a civil complaint complaint against the El Reno Police Department. In that complaint, the two of them alleged that:
12. On or about December 22, 2009 the plaintiff Lona M. Varner was in her apartmentat 1955 S. Shepard Ave, Apt. 703, El Reno, Oklahoma, in her hospital-type bed. She was also connected to a portable oxygen concentrator with a long hose.
13. A severe winter storm was moving into the area and Ms. Varner’s grandson, Lonnie D. Tinsley, came to the apartment to check on her at the request of his father, now deceased; because Lona Varner is 86 years-old and in marginal health, she takes several prescribed medications daily; Lonnie’s grandmother was unable to tell him exactly when she had taken her meds, he was concerned and called 911 to ask for an emergency medical technician to come to her apartment to evaluate her.
14. As many as ten El Reno police, John Does Nos. 1 – 10, including Thomas Duran, Frank Tinga, and Joseph Sandberg, came to the apartment and pushed their way through the door. Ms. Varner told them to get out of her apartment. Instead, the apparent leader of the police (Duran)instructed another policeman to “Taser her!” He stated in his report that the 86 year-old plaintiff“took a more aggressive posture in her bed,” and that he was fearful for his safety and the safety of others.
15.Lonnie Tinsley told them, “Don’t taze my Granny!” to which they responded that they would taser him; instead, they pulled him out of her apartment, took him down to the floor, handcuffed him and placed him in the back of a police car.
16.The police then proceeded to approach Ms. Varner in her bed and stepped on her oxygen hose until she began to suffer oxygen deprivation.
17. The police then fired a taser at her and only one wire struck her, in the left arm; the police then fired a second taser, striking her to the right and left of the midline of her upper chest and applied high voltage, causing burns to her chest, extreme pain and to pass out.
18. The police then grabbed Ms. Varner by her forearms and jerked hands together,causing her soft flesh to tear and bleed on her bed; they then handcuffed her.
19. The police freed Lonnie Tinsley from his incarceration in the back of the police carand permitted him to accompany the ambulance with his grandmother.
20. Lona Varner was transported by paramedics to Parkland Hospital in El Reno where the burns to her chest and the torn flesh on her arms were treated.
21. Ms. Varner was transported in the early morning hours of December 23, 2009 from Parkland to St. Anthony’s Hospital in Oklahoma City where she was placed in the psychiatric ward at the direction of the El Reno police; she was held there for six days and released.
If you want the official police version of this incident please go to this link where a copy of the original police report by Officer Thomas Duran may be viewed. Suffice it to say, the police version of events is wildly at odds with the version given by Ms. Varner and her grandson. I speculated back when this story first came out that the police report smacked of a whitewash, but that even if all the facts alleged by the police happened as stated in that report, they still acted improperly.
By the way El Reno police have a history of liberal (pardon the pun) taser use, including the use a taser against a man in a diabetic shock in 2009:
But back to the lawsuit filed by Ms. Varner and her grandson. A civil trial was set to begin April 11th, but last Friday, the El Reno Police Department settled the case by awarding Ms. Varner and her grandson an undisclosed sum of money. Here is the report regarding the settlement in Ms Varner’s favor at the NewsOK website, the online version of the Oklahoman newspaper:
“I’m glad it’s over with,” Lona M. Varner, 87, said Tuesday.
“There’s one thing I told them, though. I wish that every person in law enforcement would have to take a full and complete course in paramedics. That way, maybe, they would think first before they shoot.” […]
Police officer Thomas Duran reported Varner pulled a kitchen knife from under her pillow.
He reported, “Varner looked me in the eyes and said, ‘If you try and get the knife, I will stab you and kill you.’”
Duran reported he used his Taser first after other officers arrived and Varner continued to make threats with the knife.
He reported his Taser did not make good contact so another officer used a second Taser against her. “The Taser rendered Varner incapable of any further aggressive action,” he reported.
In deposition testimony in January, Varner denied making any threats to police.
She also denied attempting suicide.
She said instead she felt lightheaded on Dec. 22, 2009, because her medication was clashing.
She also said she didn’t at first realize police officers had invaded her apartment.
“They didn’t say who they were. I just told them to get out. They weren’t welcome,” she testified. “I couldn’t see … It was dark in there. … The first thing I heard them to say was to, ‘Tase her.’”
She admitted she had a knife but said she was getting ready to slice up an orange. “I lay in bed, watch TV and eat like that,” she testified.
She also testified that police officers stepped on her oxygen hose after the first attempt to use the Taser on her. “I couldn’t get air,” she said.
She said she thought the police officers were going to kill her when the second Taser was used on her. “I felt it when it hit me,” she said.
Her attorneys said the second officer “pulsed” the Taser three times, shocking her three to five seconds each time. Her attorneys said she suffered large burns on her chest. They said officers also tore the skin on her arms when they took away the knife.
So if the police version was accurate, why did the police decide to settle the case?
Maybe because the lawyer hired by the El Reno Police Department’s insurance company decided that perhaps the police version was not entirely true in all respects. Maybe the police department’s attorney felt Ms. Varner would make a more credible witness than any of the police officers present at the scene. Maybe the testimony of emergency department employees who cared for Ms. Varner on that night, and also the employees who observed her later at the psychiatric hospital, didn’t fully support the events as described by the police.
Maybe that attorney just thought no jury would believe that a sick, bedridden 86 year old woman on oxygen was a danger to 10 police officers such that the use of a taser against her was necessary. Maybe he knew of the Department’s past record with their officers shooting their tasers first and asking questions later would come out at trial. Maybe he felt the circumstantial and physical evidence didn’t fully support the police officers’ version of events.
Maybe all of the above. That’s my guess in any event.
Attorneys would not disclose how much the city’s insurance is paying Varner and her grandson in the settlement.
“We settled it with them. We can’t divulge the money end of it. But, you know, I bet they won’t be doing it again,” said Varner’s attorney, Roger Everett, of Yukon.
Oh, Mr. Roger Everett, Esq. I hope you are right. For myself, I still have my doubts that the police officers involved learned anything, but at least Lona Varner made them pay for what they did to her, endangering her life and then forcing her to spend Christmas in a psychiatric ward. It isn’t much, but it’s something, I suppose.
