Virginia paramedics were treating Travis Richardson in his upstairs bathroom for a medical emergency when sheriff’s deputies walked in and demanded to know what drugs he had taken.
Suboxone, Richardson told them, which is used to treat opioid addiction.
The deputies accused him of lying and demanded to see the doctor’s prescription for the medication.
Richardson told the deputies the prescription was in the bedroom but that he did not give them permission to search for it.
And that it what got him tasered several times and thrown in jail where he spent several weeks on false felony charges before the charges were reduced to misdemeanors.
The incident took place on August 1, 2019 and Richardson is now suing Spotsylvania County sheriff’s deputies Daren Smith and Thomas Grasso for violating his First and Fourth Amendment rights as well as for assault, battery and retaliatory prosecution.
Earlier this week, Richardson’s attorney, Joshua Erlich, tweeted a one-minute video clip from bodycam footage showing how deputies tasered and tortured him after he had told them he did not consent to them searching the home.
“You have a needle and a spoon,” the deputy says grabbing Richardson’s arm which are generally used to shoot up heroin.
“I’m going to tase you.”
“Ah! Grandma, Help, Help! Why did you punch me?!” Richardson screams as the deputies abuse him.
“Get off my taser now!” a deputy demands after his taser ends up under Richardson during the prolonged torture.
“You’re not going to tell us we have no permission to be here,” a deputy tells him after they had stopped tasering him.
The deputies charged him felony disarming a law enforcement office and felony assault on a law enforcement officer along with some misdemeanors related to drug paraphernalia, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit accuses the deputies of fabricating the felonies in order to keep him in jail without bond which is why he remained incarcerated for weeks before the felonies were reduced to the misdemeanor charges of obstruction and resisting arrest without force.
The lawsuit states that deputies confiscated his phone that day and logged it as evidence but it has to be returned to him. Watch the video below and read the lawsuit here.
Last month, Spotsylvania County made national news when its school board came close to burning books from the school library because they contained sexually explicit material. The decision was reversed when about 5,000 students signed a petition against the book burning.
“You’re not going to tell us we have no permission to be here,” a deputy tells him after they had stopped tasering him
i haven’t seen any exigent circumstance that would permit the blue lies mafia to be in the house in the first place! the paramedics where there and didn’t need any help from badged criminals whose soul purpose was to hope to find a dime bag of drugs! then when denied search they decided that the 4th amendment doesn’t apply and severely violated there victims rights! hopefully these blue lies mafia criminals have been placed on the BRADY list! as for charges and any type of accountability…… we can find that in the round file with the rest of the garbage they regularly throw out!