Deputy who shot students with Taser charged with child abuse

[Roon]

9NEWS has learned that the Lake County District Attorney's office is charging former Deputy John Ortega with 11 counts of child abuse resulting in injury, one count of child abuse with no injury and nine counts of reckless endangerment.

If he is found guilty on all charges, he could be sentenced to more than 27 years in jail. All the time would be served in the county jail.

Students attending the career fair apparently asked Ortega to shock them so they knew what it felt like. He agreed and shocked 30 students. Two of them received minor burns and had to be treated at a nearby hospital.
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=137793&catid=339

[MrScorpio]

1. Jesus H. Christ

What has this country become?

[Silent3]

3. Pardon me, but what a dumb question.

What does a country have to "become" for a weird freak incident like this to happen, and what would it have to have been before for it not to happen?

Not every single bad event is a signpost along the road to a long downward slide. Shit happens. Shit has happened. Shit will happen again. It's not all part of a trendline.

[Silent3]

2. This wasn't a brilliant thing for this guy to do but...

...the kids asked him to do it, and the last 29 kids still asked after seeing the first one try it. 27 years in jail for "child abuse", making it sound as if he'd handcuffed and sodomized the kids, is going WAY overboard.

[paulsby]

4. it was clearly WRONG and he clearly should be punished

i have had metric assloads of people ask if they could get tased from my taser. most joking, some not

i would never even CONSIDER doing so. it's just plain common sense. and especially, if he is ON duty and/or using his dept. taser it brings in all sorts of "color of authority" issues.

it shows colossally poor judgment.

whether or not it meets the criteria for the criminal charges preferred, i can't speak to since i am not familiar with the laws of that state. assuming all the kids ASKED for it, and he merely obliged them, i doubt he would actually serve any jail time, but clearly he should not be working as a cop.

[Silent3]

6. I never said it wasn't wrong...

...just that calling this "child abuse" and talking about 29 years in jail, which is more than what some people get for murder, is way out of proportion to the crime.

[paulsby]

7. i'm agreeing with you man!

there are tons of kids who voluntarily self tase. look at utube

[backscatter712]

15. Gotta agree with this.

Not a smart thing for the cop to do, but it's not jail-worthy - the kids were watching each other get zapped and saying "OOOH! I WANNA GET TASED!!!"

[Silent3]

18. Please DO tase me, bro! :) n/t

[shedevil69taz]

8. For me its getting asked to demonstrate

techniques the Army teaches us for unarmed combat by my buddies in my hometown. Even going at half speed sometimes I have to be carefull, and I wouldn't ever consider it on a minor if they "asked" or not.

What a retard.

[paulsby]

9. do the colonel flagg thing from M*A*S*H*

"do you believe that i could kill you with this finger?"

and look menacing.

[shedevil69taz]

14. Unfortunately I don't think I could look menacing

even while choking someone out. I don't have the face for it.

[paulsby]

16. jpegs plz

sorry, obligatory internet response

[shedevil69taz]

19. I'll have to wait to get back to a non-army internet system

after my shift is over. My pics are all on my personal laptop.

[paulsby]

21. i'm all patient like that nt

[miscsoc]

12. i agree he def. shouldn't be a cop

nt

[miscsoc]

11. yeah, it's stupid but it's not the sort of thing to throw a man in jail for

not even for one year! community service or something would make more sense

[saras]

5. Thirty volunteers?

It's really tempting to say I'd charge him with one count of child abuse and 29 counts of education.

And I imagine if thirty students lived through it, he probably wasn't shooting them in the chest.

But in general, it strikes me as pretty trivial compared to the number of people that die because security forces are quick to use them in the face of relatively minor emotional upsets.

[miscsoc]

10. it's certainly a fucking stupid thing to do

but it's insane and pointless to throw him into jail for indulging some kids in an ill advised stunt.

[Incitatus]

13. WTF? They were high school students who ASKED for it.

It was dumb, but he doesn't deserve jail time.

[BlooInBloo]

17. I expect responsible law enforcement to be substantially brighter than the average idiot highschool

kid. Toss the worthless fuck in jail.

[Meldread]

20. This guy was an idiot, but so were the kids.

I mean seriously. In the days of our primitive ancestors these kids would have been the type to run over to pet the hungry lion. Darwinian evolution would have sorted things out rather fast. When a boy, the cop was clearly one of these kids.

He deserves to be fired from his job, and maybe a couple of years of community service. The kids... Well I hope it hurt like hell. Especially for number 30 - who was stupid enough to ask for it after seeing the first 29 tasered.