Lawsuit: Alabama Cops Tasered Girl Who Was Having A Seizure And Arrested Mom For Trying To Help

An Alabama woman has recently filed a lawsuit, alleging that police officers from Rainbow City repeatedly tasered her teenage daughter at a concert while the daughter was suffering from grand mal seizures. Then, when she, the mother, attempted to help, they arrested her.

According to AL.com, the federal lawsuit was filed by an unnamed woman on July 9 against five Rainbow City police officers, including the police chief, three Gadsden officers who were reportedly handling security for the concert, and the Centre Stage venue that held the January 16 event.

The 32-page lawsuit claims Rainbow City police officers tasered the child in the chest at least three times while pinning her to the ground as she suffered a grand mal seizure. The suit also alleges that the other officers who were present at the scene did nothing to intervene.

The lawsuit states that as the result of an accident, the teenager suffers from grand mal seizures, which, according to the Mayo Clinic, is caused by abnormal electric activity in the brain. This causes the girl to occasionally have seizures that causes her to lose consciousness, experience muscle contractions, and “sometimes exhibit loud vocalizations caused by the forceful exhalation of air from her lungs.”

It is reported that on the day of the concert, the girl had suffered a seizure while at her high school and was treated by paramedics, but was not taken to the hospital. Then, at about 8 p.m. she went to a concert by rapper Kevin Gates at Center Stage with her sister and friends.

During the concert, a “stampede” occurred when the performer left the stage and went into the crowd, and it was then that the girl was knocked to the ground and suffered a grand mal seizure under the stress of being “trampled.”

When the seizure began, other concert-goers moved away from the girl, and her sister went to inform the employees of Center Stage of her condition. The employees, however, allegedly picked up the girl, brought her to the lobby and “unceremoniously dumped” her on the floor where she was held in a choke-hold.

Hearing of the incident from the teenager’s sister, the girls’ mother arrived in a T-shirt and pajamas and was quickly “held down on the ground at five different points of her body” by police officers who also fired a taser at the restrained woman, causing her to urinate.

The suit alleges that the officers then tasered the girl three times as she was “face down with her arms secured behind her,” which caused her to lose consciousness.

The teenager was eventually taken to Gadsden Regional Medical Center to be treated, while her mother was arrested for disorderly conduct. It is also claimed that whilst at the hospital, the police mocked the teenager and threatened to take her to a mental hospital.

According to the lawsuit, “The actions of the… defendants… were unjustified, unprovoked, and objectively unreasonable and constitute a violation of their rights under the Fourth Amendment and/or the Fourteenth Amendment to be free from the use of excessive force.”

The documents state that the plaintiffs are seeking damages for “physical pain and suffering,” emotional distress, medical expenses, attorney’s fees, and punitive damages.

[Image via CBS News]