Defendant alleging Taser violation pleads guilty

Last update: November 5, 2009 - 9:43 PM

An 18-year-old man in a video that appears to show Minneapolis police using a Taser against him pleaded guilty Thursday to a gross misdemeanor for the incident that resulted in his arrest.

Rolando Ruiz was charged with a felony count of first-degree damage to property in the April 30 incident outside the Second Precinct headquarters, on 19th Avenue NE. near Central Avenue. He pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor and was sentenced by Hennepin County Judge Robert Blaeser to 62 days -- which he already has served. He also was placed on two years probation and fined $50.

According to the criminal complaint, a police officer saw Ruiz standing on a planter in a corner of the precinct's parking lot. The 18-year-old took a landscaping brick and threw it at a vehicle owned by another officer, the complaint said.

In a video released this week by a lawyer for Ruiz, an officer appears to hold the Taser to the back of Ruiz's neck for 15 seconds. Chief Tim Dolan called the video "very disturbing" and has asked the FBI to review it.

Ruiz claims he had surrendered before the officer used the Taser. In the video, his hands are on the hood of a car as an officer approaches him from behind.

Ruiz screams and quickly falls out of the camera's view.

A notice of claim has been filed alleging civil rights and other violations. The notice names Todd Lappegaard as the officer in the video. In the notice, Ruiz is asking for damages in excess of $75,000 plus attorney fees.

The footage is the latest videotaped incident raising questions about the department's use of force. Because of one incident, Dolan required an internal affairs investigator to see any videotaped incident resulting in injuries to a citizen or officer. With another, Dolan required all city officers to watch squad-car video in which a man face-down in a snowbank is punched and kicked by six officers and to discuss the use of force.

ROCHELLE OLSON

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