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8 months ago
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Shocking video shows the moment an epilepsy sufferer is Tasered while having a seizure in front of his horrified fiancé - with cops later handcuffing him as he lies in his hospital bed.
Bruce Frankel, 61, has sued police after a cop stunned and cuffed him, claiming he was resisting arrest - all while the San Anselmo resident was suffering from a grand mal seizure.
His suit alleges battery, false arrest and defamation, according to KTVU, and suggests that police built up a cover-up story by falsely arresting him on bogus charges to justify what he describes as their use of excessive force.
The distressing events began when the financial advisor's fiancé Alice called 911 at 2.51am on August 29, 2022, reportedly saying her husband was not breathing.
She expected EMTs to arrive, but it was cops who made it to the scene first, with their bodycams recording the whole encounter between Mr Frankel and police officer Kevin Sinnott, as Alice is seen watching on helplessly in the background.
Bruce Frankel, 61, has sued police after a cop stunned and cuffed him at his home in 2022
Frankel is seen on police bodycam footage expressing disbelief at being cuffed in his hospital bed
Bruce Frankel, 61, and his wife Alice, have spoken out about his experience in August 2022
Bodycam footage shows Mr Frankel's son opening the door for Sinnott, who then goes into the man's bedroom.
Mr Frankel was emerging from his seizure when he is seen standing semi-naked, in just his underwear, in the footage. He is seen stumbling about and then falls on the bed.
Sinnott wrongly assessed that Mr Frankel was drunk shortly after entering the room, with officers reportedly saying he showed symptoms that 'mimicked someone under the influence. He was irrational, unstable, and violent.'
But Frankel appears helpless as officers come in and go straight over to him, without asking his partner what was going on, it is alleged.
'If the police had just asked [my wife] Alice two questions, 'What's going on?' and 'Has this happened before?' We wouldn't be here today,' Frankel told KTVU. 'But that officer did not do that at all. He assumed he knew what was going on and attacked me.'
Sinnott reportedly wrote in his police report that Mr Frankel had been actively resisting him for more than two minutes during the encounter, and that he had used the Taser to get him to comply.
The officer is also said to have claimed that he feared for his safety and that he warned Frankel twice that he was going to Tase him.
Mr Frankel is seen stumbling around his bedroom as police enter, with his wife appearing to support him
Officers are seen pinning down Mr Frankel during the encounter. One told him to 'stop fighting'
Sinnott appears to feel threatened in the footage and tells Mr Frankel to 'Stop resisting.'
'Stop fighting. Get on your stomach. I want to help you. Stop fighting or you're going to get tased. Do you want to get tased?'
Frankel tells him 'leave me alone' a number times. He is not seen actively pushing the officer at any point, but instead appears to be trying to get away from him.
'Stop. Baby. They're trying to help you,' Alice Frankel repeatedly tells her partner.
Frankel shouts and moans as he continues to protest his treatment, before Sinnott pulls out his taser and shocks him in the back.
The 61-year-old then falls to the ground and hits his head on some furniture.
Minutes later, at 3.03am, more cops show up and three EMTs, who help with handcuffing Frankel and lift him onto the bed.
In his police report, Sinnott reportedly wrote that Frankel pushed his wife during the incident, though no such push can be seen on camera.
Frankel's lawyers say that the allegations are part of a cover-up, and allege that Sinnott 'submitted a false statement to the Marin County District Attorney in the hope that plaintiff would be charged with a serious crime he did not commit'.
Frankel reportedly spent over $10,000 on a criminal defense attorney to fight the charges, and ultimately the Marin County DA did not file any against him.
Police are said to have barred Alice from going to hospital with her partner, meaning she was unable to explain the background of his condition, the suit states.
'The officers not only deprived plaintiff's doctors of relevant information; they filled the vacuum with false information,' it reportedly alleges.
Mr Frankel looks exhausted in his hospital bed after being admitted on the night he was Tasered
He was later discharged from hospital and led out in handcuffs again, clearly distraught
Frankel was given hospital clothing and placed into a room, where separate police bodycam footage then shows him being handcuffed to the bed.
He appears sapped of energy and expresses disbelief that he is being cuffed again.
They tell him 'you are under arrest for what happened at the house', to which he protests and asks how they can arrest someone who 'had no idea what they were doing'.
He was later discharged from hospital and led out in handcuffs again, clearly distraught, despite a neurologist determining that he had suffered a grand mal seizure.
He was booked into the Marin County Jail. When he got out, he could not remember his wife's phone number, and allegedly had to walk in slippers half a mile to a gas station, where the employees helped him get a taxi home.
Police Chief Michael Norton told KTVU that his department 'regrets that Bruce Frankel has elected to pursue litigation against us for an alleged improper emergency medical response to him.'
Attorney Alison Berry Wilkinson, who represents four of the officers involved, said that an internal review found their use of force justified.
'The allegations in the lawsuit against these officers bear no semblance to reality and are outrageous,' she told KTVU.
'The officers who arrived on-scene to help in response to the medical call did an extraordinary job under very difficult circumstances.'
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