Franklin County jailers also use the guns to shock naked and restrained prisoners and to punish inmates for routine rule violations, according to the motion filed Wednesday in an ongoing federal civil rights lawsuit.
The complaint said jailers regularly put stun guns in a "drive stun" mode designed to cause continuous pain to someone resisting an officer.
"In case after case, deputies tase people, often in the drive stun mode to cause pain, when the person was greatly outnumbered by a team of deputies who were easily able to physically overpower and control the individual," the complaint said.
In other cases, jailers are accused of using the guns "to 'soften up' detainees and regularly applying tasers to individuals who do not pose any threat of violence or harm to themselves or others," according to the complaint.
The government wants to join a lawsuit against Franklin County brought last summer by a legal rights group on behalf of four current and former inmates. The county is home to the state's capital, Columbus.
The county prosecutor's office, which represents the jail, has previously asked U.S. District Court Judge Edmund Sargus to dismiss the claims, saying inmates failed to follow jail complaint procedures before filing the lawsuit. |
