Mayor has not read officer's account of Taser incident
EUGENE, Ore. -- The public obtained access Thursday to two reports filed by the police officer who shocked a Chinese student with a Taser in September after mistaking the student for a trespasser.
The mayor of Eugene has not yet read the officer's accounts and declined to read copies furnished to her by KVAL News.
Read the full police report | Read the supplemental report
"You know I think the thing I should probably say to you is it's not up to me," Mayor Kitty Piercy said. "The people of this community voted in the police oversight process."
In the report, Officer Jud Warden describes how he used the Taser on the Chinese student after the student would not respond to his commands.
Warden said he fell -- and felt he was in danger -- before deploying the Taser.
The city's police auditor is investigating the incident.
Piercy said the investigation should be complete in December. Then, Chief Pete Kerns will decide if he will discipline the officer. Kerns is not required to follow the police auditor's recommendations.
Then, once the auditor's investigation is complete, the citizen review board can decide if they will take up the case.
Piercy said she contacted the Chinese students at the center of this case, which she calls a sad and unfortunate event.
The police reports were made public after The Register-Guard and Eugene Weekly newspapers appealed the police department's denial of a public records request. The district attorney's office, which rules on public records requests of local governments, ordered the police department to make the documents public.
