{"id":142019,"date":"2017-12-26T21:44:37","date_gmt":"2017-12-27T02:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=142019"},"modified":"2025-03-06T12:28:58","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T17:28:58","slug":"ex-trooper-charged-had-other-taser-misconduct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/12\/26\/ex-trooper-charged-had-other-taser-misconduct\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex trooper charged had other Taser misconduct"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Michigan<\/a>
Michigan State Police (Wikimedia <\/a>commons, Fair use)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DETROIT\u2014 Michigan State Police tried but failed to suspend a trooper for his use of a stun gun months before he fired a Taser at a teenager who crashed an all-terrain vehicle and died, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Mark Bessner is charged with murder in the death of Damon Grimes, but it wasn’t his only incident involving a Taser. Details are in personnel documents released to the AP through a public records request.<\/p>\n

State police wanted to suspend Bessner for 10 days for firing his Taser twice at a handcuffed man who was running away in 2016. But an arbitrator said there was no “just cause” for discipline.<\/p>\n

In 2014, Bessner fired his Taser at a suspect who was handcuffed. He agreed to a five-day suspension, records show, but four days were eventually dropped. It apparently was his first case of misconduct.<\/p>\n

Bessner, 43, now faces serious legal trouble. He was charged last week with second-degree murder in the August death of Damon Grimes of Detroit, who was joyriding on an all-terrain vehicle when the trooper fired his stun gun. The 15-year-old crashed and died.<\/p>\n

Bessner, who quit the state police after the teenager’s death, has pleaded not guilty and is being held on million bond.<\/p>\n

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Prosecutor Kym Worthy said there was no reason for him to fire his Taser especially from a moving patrol car.<\/p>\n

“His behaviour was criminal. We’re not trying to pull the rug over anyone’s eyes,” a state police spokesman, Lt.<\/p>\n

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Mike Shaw, said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Just two months earlier, an arbitrator had cleared Bessner of misconduct in how he used his Taser while chasing a crime suspect. The man was handcuffed during a traffic stop in Detroit but suddenly sprinted away and was able to clear fences.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Bessner believed the man must have slipped out of the cuffs so he used his Taser twice to subdue him. It was a wrong assumption. It’s generally against state policy to use a stun gun on a handcuffed person who’s in custody.<\/p>\n

Arbitrator Steven Lett, however, found technical distinctions. He said the man was “no longer in custody” as soon as he ran away.<\/p>\n

“The question is whether the officer’s actions are objectively reasonable in light of all the facts and circumstances,” Lett said, quoting a training guide from the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards.<\/p>\n

If the 10-day suspension had been affirmed, it would have triggered an additional four days from the 2014 incident that were being held in abeyance, Shaw said.<\/p>\n

Bessner’s personnel file shows he faced a third misconduct allegation in March. State police said he was driving at high speed without emergency lights or sirens. The case apparently wasn’t resolved before he quit last fall.<\/p>\n

Bessner’s file also includes praise for his work. He was recognized by the department for saving a woman who had overdosed on heroin. “Best wishes for continued success,” Col. Kriste Kibbey Etue wrote in February 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DETROIT\u2014 Michigan State Police tried but failed to suspend a trooper for his use of a stun gun months before …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":142024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24157],"tags":[40552,40550,40551,38893],"class_list":["post-142019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-american-news","tag-death-of-damon-grimes","tag-ex-trooper-charged-had-other-taser-misconduct","tag-mark-bessner-is-charged-with-murder","tag-michigan-state-police","mauthors-ed-white","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142019"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287430,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142019\/revisions\/287430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}