Taser

A Taser was used to subdue a man who died after a struggle with Washington County Sheriff's Department deputies Friday night, but whether the Taser was used improperly or whether its use contributed to the man's death was still under investigation, Sheriff Charles Mades said Wednesday. Read the full story in Thursday's Herald-Mail newspapers.

WASHINGTON COUNTY A Taser was used to subdue a man who died after a struggle with Washington County Sheriff's Department deputies Friday night, but whether the pistol-shaped electrical weapon was used improperly or whether its use contributed to the man's death was still under investigation, Sheriff Charles Mades said Wednesday. "We have nothing to show it (the Taser) was recklessly misused," Lt. Mark Knight, supervisor of the department's criminal investigations division and its senior Taser instructor, said Wednesday.

The Washington County Sheriff's Department is waiting for doctors with The Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore to rule on the cause of death for Theodore Rosenberry, a man who died March 24 after a struggle with deputies, Lt. Mark Knight said Wednesday. Rosenberry, 35, was pronounced dead at Washington County Hospital about 90 minutes after he struggled on U.S. 40 with two deputies who approached him because he matched the description of an alleged burglar, Knight has said.

charlestown@herald-mail.com CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - At least four police officers struggled with a man in Jefferson County Magistrate Court Wednesday afternoon before a fifth officer entered the courtroom and used a Taser to subdue the man, police said. The man also head-butted an elevator door as he was being taken out of the court complex on George Street and head-butted a window and a cage inside a police cruiser, Jefferson County Sheriff's Deputy V. Tiong said. Michael Joseph Wimer, 20, of 2260 Shepherd Grade Road, Shepherdstown, W.Va.

An excerpt from a video depicting an Ohio State Police trooper arresting a drunk driver with a taser was played as a prank over the Maryland State Police radio channel Friday afternoon, causing local troopers some concern, said Sgt. S. Jussila of the Hagerstown barrack. "Someone thought it would be funny to play a taser video over our radio channel. We don't know who it was. It probably wasn't even a trooper," Jussila said. But she said if it is discovered who pulled the prank, the barrack will take serious action against them.

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) - The Frederick County Sheriff's Office says a man died after a deputy used a Taser to break up a fight. It happened around 5 a.m. Sunday in the 7000 block of Gresham Court East in Frederick. Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Corporal Jennifer Bailey says the first deputy on the scene found four people fighting. When the deputy deployed the Taser, Bailey says the 20-year-old man fell on the ground unconscious. The man, a identified by a relative as Jarrel Gray, was taken to Frederick Memorial Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

WASHINGTON COUNTY Cardiac arrhythmia associated with cocaine intoxication caused the death of Theodore Rosenberry during a March 24 struggle with two Washington County Sheriff's Department deputies, doctors with the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner have ruled, but whether the Taser used in the struggle had anything to do with his death is undetermined. Rosenberry, 35, was pronounced dead at Washington County Hospital about 90 minutes after he struggled on U.S. 40 with two deputies who approached him at about 9:30 p.m. because he matched the description of an alleged burglar, Lt. Mark Knight said.

martinsburg@herald-mail.com HEDGESVILLE, W.Va. - Deputies sent to take two children into custody because they had reportedly been neglected instead found themselves in a confrontation with an older man swinging a broom, court records show. John Benjamin Bowman, 74, of Butts Mill Road in Hedgesville, was charged with two counts of assault on a police officer and one count of obstructing police, all misdemeanors. The incident began when Deputy B.J. Dusek and Cpl. W.M. Spessert arrived at Bowman's house Tuesday afternoon to remove two children, ages 5 and 13, from the house, as ordered by the Department of Health and Human Resources.

WILLIAMSPORT -- What started with a man refusing to pay his cab fare early Tuesday ended with the man being charged with assaulting a Washington County Sheriff's deputy. The incident drew deputies to the Sheetz convenience store, 100 E. Potomac St., Williamsport, at 2:38 a.m. Tuesday. Once there, Deputies Joel Footen and Benjamin Jones encountered Timothy Kevin Stotler in the parking lot in a dispute with a cab driver over an unpaid fare. Observed to be loud and disorderly and appearing to be highly intoxicated, Stotler was told to pay the cab fare and he complied, deputies said in a written press release.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - The pit bull had pinned Berkeley County Sheriff's Department Deputy T.E. Boyles inside his police cruiser Friday morning, but only managed to sink his teeth into the 27-year-old officer's X-26 Taser dart gun, instead of flesh. "He bit down and I was fighting to get away," Boyles recounted several hours after he and a few other deputies managed to stun the attacking canine with electrically-charged darts and "hogtie" the dog outside a home in Inwood, W.Va. Boyles' too-close-for-comfort encounter with the fully mature blue and white dog happened after deputies arrived at 166 Walter Drive to check on the welfare of a man who dispatchers were told appeared ready to jump from the roof of a mobile home.

A man claims in a federal lawsuit that two Martinsburg police officers used excessive force when they arrested him in May during a rental-car dispute. William E. Hale of Martinsburg claims he sustained more than 30 burns on his neck, shoulders and back from being shocked with a Taser by the officers, according to the lawsuit filed Friday by attorney Harry P. Waddell. Hale, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor obstruction charge in July, claims his civil rights were violated and asserts that the police officers' treatment of him constituted "assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress," according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Martinsburg.

A Washington County District Court judge on Monday kept bond at $650,000 for a Hagerstown man who police allege said he intended to shoot people with an assault rifle. Judge Mark D. Thomas said during a bond review hearing Monday that he wouldn't change the bond amount that was set earlier for Woodrow A. Carmack III, 21, formerly of Clopper Road in Hagerstown. “I believe that under the circumstances, the bond is reasonable,” Thomas told Carmack via a closed-circuit television link between the courthouse and the Washington County Detention Center.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- A 31-year-old man was in Eastern Regional Jail on Monday on counts of first-degree robbery, felon in possession of a firearm and two other felony charges, according to court and jail records. Arthur Lee Hairston Jr., no fixed address, also was charged with obstructing an officer and fleeing on foot, according to Berkeley County Magistrate Court records. Magistrate Harry L. Snow set a $122,000 cash-only bond in an arraignment hearing on Saturday. At 9 p.m. Friday, Martinsburg Police Department patrol officers J.L. Harper and D.P. North arrested Hairston after the defendant attempted to flee on foot near the intersection of West John and South Raleigh streets, according to court records.

MARTINSBURG, W.VA. -- A Ranson, W.Va., man who was hospitalized with burns he incurred when police used a combination of pepper spray and a Taser during his arrest in 2006 in Berkeley County is to be paid $100,000 for his pain and suffering as part of a mediation agreement. The agreement entered Sept. 29 resolves lawsuits filed in the Martinsburg division of U.S. District Court and Berkeley County Circuit Court, according to Berkeley County Commission legal counsel Norwood Bentley III. Attorneys for West Virginia State Police, Berkeley County, City of Ranson and Steven C. Scott reached the agreement, a copy of which was released Tuesday by Bentley in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- Five people were arrested Saturday after police were called to break up a fight at the Waffle House on Foxcroft Avenue, according to a Martinsburg Police Department press release. Between 60 and 80 people were in the parking lot when officers arrived about 3:15 a.m., police said. An officer had to use a Taser on a male who had punched another male, police said. Other people tried to interfere with the arrest and yelled obscenities, police said. Levar Karem Bryant, 30, of the Bronx, N.Y., who allegedly punched the other male, was charged with disturbing the peace and obstructing a police officer, police said.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- A Berkeley County Sheriff's Department deputy arrested two men in separate high-speed vehicle pursuits that allegedly involved alcohol over the weekend. William Edward Flythe, 35, of 247 Liberty St., Martinsburg, was in Eastern Regional Jail on Monday evening on one felony count of fleeing while driving under the influence, according to jail and court records. Magistrate Sandra L. Miller set a $50,000 cash bond for Flythe, who was arraigned Sunday afternoon, according to court records.

SMITHSBURG -- A Cavetown man was taken into custody Monday night after the Rite Aid Pharmacy at 22441 Jefferson Boulevard was robbed at gunpoint by a man carrying what he claimed to be an explosive device, according to a press release from the Washington County Sheriff's Department. The device turned out to be a hoax, officials said. Christopher Allan May, 28, of 22535 Cavetown Church Road, was charged with armed robbery, theft and multiple counts of assault, reckless endangerment and handgun violations, including the use of a handgun in the commission of a violent crime, the release said.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - An argument over the price of a Ferris wheel ticket Thursday at the Berkeley County Youth Fair led to a scuffle involving three members of a Martinsburg-area family and Berkeley County Sheriff's Department deputies, police said Friday. Troy Marion Feltner, 34, of 1356 Rock Cliff Drive, was charged with three counts of obstructing an officer and counts of battery of an officer, disorderly conduct and public intoxication, according to Berkeley County Magistrate Court records.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- An argument over the price of a Ferris wheel ticket Thursday at the Berkeley County Youth Fair led to a scuffle involving three members of a Martinsburg-area family and Berkeley County Sheriff's Department deputies, police said Friday. Troy Marion Feltner, 34, of 1356 Rock Cliff Drive, was charged with three counts of obstructing an officer and counts of battery of an officer, disorderly conduct and public intoxication, according to Berkeley County Magistrate Court records.

WILLIAMSPORT -- What started with a man refusing to pay his cab fare early Tuesday ended with the man being charged with assaulting a Washington County Sheriff's deputy. The incident drew deputies to the Sheetz convenience store, 100 E. Potomac St., Williamsport, at 2:38 a.m. Tuesday. Once there, Deputies Joel Footen and Benjamin Jones encountered Timothy Kevin Stotler in the parking lot in a dispute with a cab driver over an unpaid fare. Observed to be loud and disorderly and appearing to be highly intoxicated, Stotler was told to pay the cab fare and he complied, deputies said in a written press release.