Deputy had previous complaint charging excessive force

Associated Press

CINCINNATI

A previous use-of-force complaint is among the documents in the personnel file of a deputy now accused of repeatedly using a stun gun on an Ohio man in diabetic shock who officers thought was a drunken driver, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that also among items in the file of Hamilton County deputy sheriff John Haynes is a drunken-driving conviction. The documents are among several recently provided to the newspaper by a lawyer representing John Harmon, the Anderson Township man who was stunned after a traffic stop in 2009.

Harmon, 52, filed a federal lawsuit in December alleging civil-rights violations by four deputies, their supervisor, the sheriff’s department and the county. The lawsuit says deputies smashed his window, cut his seat belt, dragged him from his vehicle, kicked him in the head, stomped on him and stunned him seven times.

Deputies charged Harmon with resisting arrest and failing to comply with a police officer’s order, charges that later were dropped by prosecutors.

An internal investigation at the sheriff’s office found that excessive force was used, and Harmon should not have been charged. The report finds Haynes, his supervisor, Sgt. Barbara Stuckey, and two others “guilty of conduct unbecoming a deputy sheriff.” All four received suspensions.

“Inaccurate and misleading reports were filed, the officers provided incorrect statements, and the driver was improperly charged with a crime. The officers’ actions, beginning with the breaking of the driver’s window and continuing with the multiple applications of the Taser, were not justified, hence unreasonable,” says a disciplinary letter in Haynes’ file.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said he has opened a criminal investigation into the matter.

Stuckey has filed a grievance with her union over the findings of the sheriff’s office investigation, The Enquirer reported.

“I continue to believe the officers acted reasonably and in good faith,” said David Stanley, of the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police Ohio Labor Council, who represents sheriff’s office patrol officers and supervisors and corrections officers.

Sheriff Simon Leis said in a statement to newspaper that he hopes the public will “refrain from making its final judgment until all the facts are known.” Ed Boldt, a lawyer for the sheriff’s office, said that, in response to the incident, all deputy sheriffs have been trained to recognize the symptoms of diabetes.

The Enquirer said the office declined to release the investigative report, citing the pending lawsuit, and that personnel files were not provided by the office in time for the paper’s Sunday report.

Messages seeking comment were left by The Associated Press on Sunday for Stuckey at her home and for Haynes at the sheriff’s department.

Haynes, 40, was investigated in 2004 on a separate use-of-force complaint in which he was accused of holding two people on the ground at gunpoint during a traffic stop. At the time, other deputies said: “Haynes is basically out of control” and “it is only a matter of time before Haynes seriously hurts or kills someone.”

His drunken-driving conviction came in 1999, when an off-duty Cincinnati police officer said he was driving 92 mph in a 55 mph zone and had a blood-alcohol content of 0.165, twice the legal limit for driving in Ohio. He received a six-month license suspension and was placed on probation for three months. He was suspended without pay for three days.

Haynes also was questioned in 2009 when a friend of his posted on Facebook that he took her to bomb-squad training, and she was allowed to “blow cars up.” In 2010, he was found to have violated office rules by allegedly threatening to harm a deputy who testified against him at a disciplinary hearing.