Summer's Shenanigans

Okay, I know it's been a while since I was arrested, tasered, went on trial, got convicted of three crimes that I didn't commit and jumped through a bunch of hoops for a judge so he could feel better about the justice system and his job, but I'm finally ready to write about what really happened. I havn't written or talked about it since the day the judge freeded me from my ridiculous sentence, in hopes that I could just forget about it, but unfortunately I can't. I think about what a fucked up justice system America has, every single day. It's like torture, because there is nothing I can do to fix it.

Here is what happened the night I got arrested:

On 12/2/06, I was arrested by Officer Christopher Karches of the Carlsbad Police Department, without just cause and charged with crimes that I did not commit. In addition, Christopher Karches used extremely excessive force and used his taser on me three times as I was face down on the ground and he was on top of me. For the record, I am a female that stands 5' 7" tall and weighs 115 lbs.

On the evening of 12/2/06, a group including myself was celebrating a birthday on the patio at Hennesy's in Carlsbad. At 11:15pm, my boyfriend and I prepared to leave. I wanted to use the restroom before we left and as I walked into the restaurant, I was grabbed by a bouncer and told that I could not enter the restaurant to use the restroom. When I asked, "Why can't I use the restroom". The bouncer replied, "Cuz I said so.". I informed the bouncer that it is illegal to not allow access to the restroom to patrons and he continued to argue with me. At this point, Officer Karches stood in the doorway, next to the bouncer. I said, "Okay, well why don’t we ask him (referring to Officer Karches)". Addressing Officer Karches, I said, "Why don't you tell them that what they are doing is illegal and that they have to allow customers access to a restroom". Officer Karches did not respond so I said, "You DO know the LAW don’t you?". My statement obviously angered Officer Karches, but he still did not respond. I was then told that if I did not leave the premises, I would be arrested for trespassing. I said, "You guys are both fucking morons", I turned around to walk out of Hennesy's, flipped off the bouncer and Officer Karches and proceeded to walk 5 or 6 steps. I had one foot inside the premises and was about to place my other foot on the public sidewalk when I was grabbed forcefully from behind, by the back of the neck and my left arm. The person that grabbed me from behind (later identified as Officer Karces) did not identify themself, and the force of them grabbing my neck whipped my head back so hard that my purse and hat went flying through the air. Since I had no idea who just grabbed me from behind, I pulled my arm from their grip and I was immediately thrown to the pavement with enough force to knock the barrettes our of my hair and scuff my knee. Still dazed from being hit from behind and not knowing who was on my back, I simply tried to get to my feet. The person on my back yelled that I was under arrest for "drunk in public" and then tased me in the back while I was face down on the sidewalk. Being tased in the back, flipped me over onto my back and I yelled, "Ow you fucking asshole". Officer Karches then proceeded to taser me at least two more times in the stomach. I screamed and yelled, "Ow, Jesus Christ, STOP IT." I was then flipped back over onto my stomach and Officer Karches handcuffed me and yelled at me to "STAND UP". I said, "I'm wearing 5 inch heels, I CAN'T get up.". Officer Karches grabbed my handcuffs, yanked me to my feet and placed me in the back of another officer's squad car.

Numerous Carlsbad police officers were on the scene at this point and I was removed from the car to be patted down by a female officer and to have my jewelry removed. Stefan Rest witnessed Officer Karches attack me and he was gathering other witnesses information when he was confronted by another officer. The officer asked what Stefan was doing and when he found out he was collecting witness information Stefan was ordered to leave or else the officer threatened to arrest him for loitering and DUI if he caught Stefan riding his bicycle home. The other officers left and I was put in the back of Officer Karches car with Officer Karches and one other male officer. Officer Karches drove around the block and dropped off the other officer. I thought this was incredibly strange that I was now handcuffed and alone with a man that had just attacked me and I started to get scared. So I started asking questions to Officer Karches:

Summer: "So, what's your name?"

Karches: "Karches."

Summer: "What's your first name?"

Karches: "I'm not going to tell you that!"

Summer: "How long have you been on the force?"

Karches: "5 years."

Summer: "Ah, I bet you havn't been in Carlsbad long, have you."

Karches: "1 ½ years in Carlsbad."

Summer: "So, where are we going?"

Karches: "The hospital, then you’re going to JAIL!"

Summer: "Why are we going to the hospital?"

Karches: "It's standard procedure when someone gets tased"

Etc.

At the hospital, I was marched into the Emergency Room in handcuffs where Officer Karches explained that they just needed to take my vitals and we'd be on our way. They hooked me up to an EKG and my heart rate was more then double my normal heart rate due to Officer Karches loss of control and using his taser on me at least three times. Doctor Bei went to talk to Officer Karches and said that there was no way that he could release me in this condition. Officer Karches got all huffy because he obviously wanted to go home and said, "Well, can I use your computer to finish my report then?". After approximately an hour of drinking cold water and resting in the hospital bed, my heart rate was still dangerously high and I was hooked up to an IV in an attempt to bring it down. Another hour passed and my heart rate still would not return to normal. The doctor asked if I had taken any drugs or drank any caffeine that night. I responded that I have never done drugs before and that I had not had any caffeine that entire day. Apparently Officer Karches did not believe me and ordered a drug test. I peed in a cup and the drug test came back 100% clean. I asked the doctor what my blood alcohol level was, but he said Officer Karches would not allow them to test my blood alcohol level. I asked for a blood alcohol test 3 times, but Officer Karches would not allow the doctor to test for alcohol. I then asked the doctor in private that if he could, to please perform a blood alcohol test on my blood from the IV needle since Officer Karches arrested me (and subsequently tasered me three times) for being "drunk in public", when it was obvious that I was not drunk. I am still waiting on my medical records to see if the doctor was able to test my blood for alcohol. After 2 hours, the doctor said that he would release me if I wanted to leave, but my heart rate was still very high and that I should rest until I felt better. I was also advised that I should immediately return to the ER if was experiencing chest pain or a fast heartbeat for more then 20 minutes. Unfortunately, I was unable to rest since I was immediately thrown in jail.

As I was waiting to be booked into the Vista jail, there were numerous other officers and several men that were arrested for drunk driving present, so I was making small talk with the officers. An officer was administering Breathalyzer tests to the guys that were arrested for drunk driving and I asked if I could take a Breathalyzer since I was arrested for "drunk in public" and tasered three times, when I wasn’t even drunk. The other officers looked surprised to find out the I was arrested for drunk in public and was tased by Officer Karches three times. One officer turned to Karches and said, "You tased her three times?". Officer Karches looked embarrassed and said, "It's always the girls that are the hardest". I asked again if I could take a Breathalyzer and Karches erupted into childish taunting. He said, "Nanananana, don’t you ever SHUT UP? Your lucky I didn’t punch you and next time I'll use the taser with the barbs because it hurts worse!" I was taken aback by Officer Karches lack of professionalism and said, "Are you kidding? You really should be quiet because you're making yourself look stupid. Are you in high school or something?"

As my paperwork was being processed, the women that was processing it called Officer Karches over and asked if he got approval for "this". He said no and she said that he couldn’t do that. I’m not sure what he was trying to do, but I have a feeling that he wanted it so that I would have to post bail rather then be released on "OR" (own recognizance), because when the women announced that I would be realeased on "OR" he was visibly annoyed. I was then thrown into the "drunk tank" and held for 12 hours even though I was stone-cold sober.

In addition to being falsely arrested, I was admitted into the hospital were I was forced to receive treatment for my injuries caused by Officer Karches and have incurred medical bills of over $3000.

So that's what happened, plain and simple. The restaurant/bar I was at was violating health code and didn't like that I was actually informed (the bouncers that were involved were both fired after this incident), I asked an officer for help and he was too stupid to know what I was talking about, I got annoyed, flipped him off and he lost his temper to the extent that he put lives in danger.

Was I a bitch? Sure. Did I do anything illegal? Nope. I simply exercised my right to freedom of speech. Weather you like it or not, it's not illegal to call a cop a "fucking moron" or flip them off. It IS illegal for someone to jump on your back and zap you with a taser, even if they are wearing a badge. Which is why Officer Karches made up a report full of disgusting lies. If he admitted to what really happened, he would have lost his job as a police officer.

So, after this happened the District Attorney (of course) offered to drop everything if I agreed to plead guilty to an infraction "disturbing the peace". An infraction is like a speeding ticket, you pay a fine and go on your marry way. I refused to take any "deals" offered by the DA, because I knew what happened was wrong and I wanted to make sure that Officer Karches didn't pull this bullshit again. So, I went to trial. My lawyer was a bumbling newbie, but I was still confident since I knew that I didn't do anything wrong and we had 8 witnesses testify that what Officer Karches wrote in the police report was totally fabricated.

Then, something happened that I would have never believed in a million years.

I was convicted of commiting three crimes that I never commited.

I know that the 12 jurors were tired (trial is totally exhausting and the DA drug it out over two weeks) and if they didn't come to a decision within an hour, they would have to deliberate through the weekend. So, at 4:29 on Friday (court closes at 4:30), they decided to find me guilty of all three counts (trespassing, resisting arrest and drunk in public).

I was sentanced to a $1000 fine, required to attent AA meetings 3 times a week for 2 months, required to attend a 12-week anger management course and I was sentanced to 90 days (720 hours) of work service. The judge told me that he was so harsh with my sentance because, I "put an officers life in danger by choosing to wrestle with him in a place wear other people might have hurt him". So I was punished for the hypothetical actions of someone else? Awesome.

So, on top of the 80 hours I work per week, I had to jump through all of these little hoops for the judge. Which I did. And, he "let me off" after 45 days of the ridiculous AA meetings, anger management classes and 10 days of work service. I'm not even on parole. The judge also stressed that I should expunge my record. You have to pay the court to expunge your record. Ah, it's all making sense now. They just wanted more money.

The justice system is just a sick game. It has NOTHING to do with justice and it's simply about who knows how to play the game better. So, I was simply naive and didn't hire some pitbull lawyer because I believed that if you don't do anything wrong everything will turn out in the end. As a matter of fact, I wanted to represent myself, but the 1st judge I saw couldn't stress enough that representing myself wouldn't be tolerated.

Any how, another thing I learned is how incredibly dumb so many people are. I can't tell you how many anonymous assholes have commented on my posts during this entire episode with things like:

"Bitch, you deserved it"

"Maybe you shouldn't have flipped off a police officer!"

"Do what you're told next time!"

etc, etc, etc.

I'm not a sheep, nor am I a lemming. I don't following along blindly in life and do whatever I'm told just because. I will always ask questions and so should you. This experiance has shown me how many ridiculous sheep are really out there and most don't even know their own rights. I wasn't tried by a jury of my peers. I was tried by a jury of average Americans that sheep along in life and are brainwashed to believe anything a police officer says.

As Officer Karches said in court, he could have punched me in the face, but he chose to taser me instead. Why? Because if he left an external mark on me (such as a black eye or even bruises), civil rights activists and the media would be all over this. So the police now use tasers that cause internal damage, because since you can't see the injury, it's less sensational and safer for the police to abuse their power.

If it was 1955 and Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus, she would be tasered and thrown in jail for disturbing the peace. Bitch probably deserved it...Right?

Labels: Tasers, The Justice System