Attorney defends state trooper in Oklahoma ambulance stop

[celeb_2006]

Attorney defends trooper in Okla. ambulance stop - Yahoo! News

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OKLAHOMA CITY – Bothered that an ambulance driver failed to yield to him as he raced to provide backup on a call — and angered further when he thought the driver flipped him an obscene gesture — state Trooper Daniel Martin decided to stop the ambulance and give the driver a piece of his mind.
What Martin didn't know then, his lawyer said Monday, was that there was a patient in the back of the ambulance.
"He's not this ogre, this depriver of people's rights," the trooper's attorney, Gary James, said. "He's a good man."
Since a cell phone video of the dispute taken by the patient's son was released last month, Martin has faced criticism and has been placed on paid leave pending an investigation. The patient, Stella Davis of Boley, was eventually treated and released from the hospital, but relatives and others have questioned why the ambulance was stopped and pushed for answers.
After the trooper stopped the vehicle, a paramedic jumped from the back and demanded that Martin talk to him instead of the driver, according to a longer video, taken by the dashboard camera in Martin's cruiser, that authorities released over the weekend.
"You get back in the ambulance, I'm talking to the driver," Martin said.
"I'm in charge of this unit, sir," the paramedic tells Martin, an Iraq war veteran who returned from the Middle East about a month before the May 24 incident in Paden, 40 miles east of Oklahoma City.
Martin tells the driver he's going to give him a ticket for failure to yield.
"I ain't going to be putting up with that (expletive)," Martin said. "You understand me?"
Then the paramedic, Maurice White Jr., said: "And I won't put up with you talking to my driver like that."
The situation escalates, with White repeatedly telling Martin he has a patient that he wants to take to the hospital, and Martin telling him to get back in the ambulance. They soon begin scuffling on the side of the road as Martin attempts to arrest White, at one point grabbing him by the throat, video shows.
Martin's attorney said the trooper — whom he described as a decorated sailor and a 15-year law enforcement veteran — didn't realize there was a patient in the ambulance until well after the situation had intensified. He either didn't hear it or it didn't register, he said.
Martin was trying to make a legitimate traffic stop, James said, when White became hostile, refused to comply with the patrolman's orders and caused the situation to spiral out of control.
James said the law allows an officer to pull over an ambulance if its emergency lights and sirens aren't running, as was the case in this incident.
Thompson Gouge, spokesman for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, which employs White as a paramedic, said the use of lights and sirens depends on the patient's medical situation. Sometimes the lights and sirens often won't be used when patients are transported to the hospital in order to keep them calm.
White's attorney, Richard O'Carroll, said the veteran paramedic was trying to protect his patient and that the trooper had no reason to stop the ambulance, let alone try and arrest White. The trooper's arms were bruised when White resisted arrest, James said.
"If the guy was bruised, it didn't make any difference," O'Carroll said. "He ought not to stop ambulance drivers for hurting his feelings."

[kingcap72]

The trooper spent more time with the ambulance than he did providing backup on the other call that he was in such a rush to get to.

He's lucky the patient didn't die otherwise he & the state would be facing a bigger shitstorm. The bird shit on the windshield was a nice touch, too.

[buttmunch]

Yet another power mad asshole with a badge. What the hell is going on with loony coppers? Are they all jacked up on 'roids or are the departments just taking any chucklehead who walks in off the street and handing them a uniform?

[AliceInWonderland]

what a fucking moron, i see cops speeding through intersections all the damn time w/o their lights or sirens, but I know they're on a call, or at least i hope they are....they do it too is the point. also, cops in cali are still on their cell phones even though its against the law now supposedly

[bwoodell]

Okay. All of this is just my opinion, but I gotta let this out.

If I had a say, that officer would be looking for a different job. (Or at the very least, going through some *serious* counseling before ever going near the street again!) So far as I could tell, it looked like he had had a seriously bad day, and was ready to take it out on the first poor schmuck who crossed him.

As I watched that, I could not help but think "What if it were *my* wife in the ambulance?". (or anyone I cared about?)

A decorated vet of a wartime military can really mean something, and it can also be nothing much. I do appreciate our vets for what they have done and are doing, but to stop an ambulance because you want to chew someone out? To repeatedly ignore everyone practically chanting "there's a patient in this ambulance". To ignore a man stating over and over that his wife is in there...

If it had been me, I would be outraged. Hell, I'm outraged and it wasn't me! My first thought was "why aren't they calling 911? This guy is insane!"

What I want to do now is see the uncut version. You can see places where the scene jumps. Now I'm wondering what all they cut out. If it was that bad with what they showed...

The attorney says the ambulance supervisor made things worse by butting in. What was he supposed to have done? He stood there and in a calm voice stated he had a patient, and that he needed to get the patient to the hospital. He offered to be taken into custody as soon as the patient was delivered. How was that not reasonable? Was he to just stay in the ambulance and trust that this yelling/cursing not-obviously-in-control person was going to finish sometime quick with his ranting and send them on their way? If the officer continues until the patient suffers some irreparable harm, is it suddenly the drivers fault for having acted in a way that set the cop off?

The video didn't show anything I thought was a vehicle taking too long to get over. I don't know anything about their patient, but I do know that I was taught that some patients would be too excitable for the siren or any sort of rough ride. It could have been the driver was taught to pull over easily if possible.

The attorney says he's not the ogre that the press is making him out to be. I imagine that many people have been pulled over before by cops that seem control-freakish, and that is working against the cop here. I have been pulled over by police who seemed young and scared. I've had 'em seem like a kindly father-figure, I've had them be very business-like, and on two occasions that I recall, I have felt like I was pulled over by a control freak intent getting joy from ruining my day. For all I know, much of all of those observations were based as much or more on my own emotional state at the time I was pulled over. I gotta point out though, that I wasn't there this time. I was watching and listening, and it's not press that's making an ogre out of that guy, it was him yelling cursing, and physically abusing people. (again, my opinion, I'm not judge or jury here)

Cops are under a lot of pressure. If they don't get everything right, guilty people could go free or innocent to jail. This time it was an ambulance with a sick lady inside and family riding with her. It could just as easily been people with drugs who had stolen an ambulance. BUT, I don't think I saw anything worth yelling or cursing, much less shoving or choking. I've been flipped off in traffic before without making near the fuss a passing police car makes. I didn't even yell and curse from within my car.

Why write all this? If I don't, and I'm the next guy who gets pulled over and mistreated, it would almost be like I deserved it. I don't think these people deserved the "law enforcement" they got that day.

[lisalucy69]

The lawyer says the police officer did not know there was a patient in the back...did he even bother to ask? NO. You better bet if that were my family member or myself in that ambulance as a patient, I'd make sure this shit became public. What a f*#king douchebag cop.

[twitchy2.0]

Thanks for the rant, bwoodel, and welcome to the board.

[msdeb]

that paramedic told him a bunch of tiems that there was a patient in the back of the vehicle, how could he NOT know this?

he had a fucking attitude from the beginning. i hate cops like that. they spoil it for the rest of the police that actually do their jobs!

[sparkly]

The bottom line is that woman could've died and all because some asshole cop got his ego bruised. Judging from the video, there was absolutely no reason to arrest the paramedic in charge. I fucking hate cops with huge egos.