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Dashcam: Man Kicked, Beaten Tased While In Handcuffs
*Video Edited Down From 20 Minutes*
A Humphreys County man sustained cracked ribs and a punctured lung after he was stripped naked by deputies, beaten and shocked repeatedly with a Taser gun, according to a Wednesday court filing.
The Jan. 23 incident was recorded by video equipment fixed to the vehicle of a Humphreys County Sheriff deputy. Darren T. Ring, 34, of New Johnsonville is requesting to be released from jail, where he has been held in lieu of bond for more than five months..
The incident occurred after Humphreys County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of gunshots in Waverly. Ring was not arrested for firing the shots but was drunk when deputies arrived, reports show. In a grand jury indictment, Ring was charged with resisting arrest, three counts of assaulting an officer and a parole violation.
The dashcam video shows deputies repeatedly telling Ring to stop resisting arrest while he is laying facedown in the snow with at least two deputies on top of him. Deputy James McCord wrote in his incident report that Ring kicked him in the testicles, poked him in the eye and tried to grab a fellow deputy’s firearm.
“He (Ring) was extremely violent towards all the deputies trying to restrain him,” the incident report states. “He was continuously kicking and spitting on the deputies.”
On the video a half-naked Ring is held down and intermittently kicked and struck with a baton for approximately 10 minutes.
Later, a Waverly Police Department officer responds to the scene as well. At that point, an incapcitated Ring is shocked repeatedly with a Taser while deputies instruct him to roll over on his stomach. In the video Ring says he can’t roll over. His attorney, Public Defender Jake Lockert, said his client was unable to move because of repeated Taser shots.
“The defendant had committed no crime,” the motion states, “was not advised that he was being arrested for any crime, and was not charged with any crime until after the officers had beaten him and had to charge the defendant in an attempt to justify or cover up their own criminal conduct of aggravated assault on the defendant.”
A spokeswoman for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation confirmed it was forwarded the case for investigation.
Ring has also hired prominent Nashville attorney David Raybin for a possible civil suit. Raybin said his client may pursue civil action once the criminal charges against Ring are resolved.
“I”m not going to speculate why the deputies acted this way,” said Raybin, a former prosecutor and attorney for the Nashville Fraternal Order of Police. “Never in my 35 years have I seen anything like it, especially when you consider how long Mr. Ring was kicked, beaten with a baton and tasered.”
In his motion, Lockert asked that Ring be released from Humphreys County jail where he has been held in lieu of bond since his January arrest. The motion requested “that all charges should be dropped because the defendant committed no crime and, even if he had committed some crime, he was punished so severely that jeopardy should attach and bar further prosecution.”
Ring has had previous arrests including a recent driving under influence charge.
A spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office said further details could not be released because of the investigation. The officers in question have not been suspended, the spokeswoman said.
