This one was interesting.....
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...fire+gets+out+of+hospital,+then+is+arrested++
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...fire+gets+out+of+hospital,+then+is+arrested++
Inmate says officers assaulted him after he had surgery
When convicted felon Lance A. Cole was taken to St. Louis police headquarters in June 2002, he quickly became the butt of jokes, a department employee testified Monday.
Cole had stuck a pistol in his pants and accidentally shot himself in the genitals two days earlier, and he was arrested for a parole violation after being taken to Barnes-Jewish Hospital for surgery.
"It was like the joke of the evening," said Iris Marks, a 16-year civilian employee who was at the second-floor watch desk in the headquarters on Clark Street.
But things turned serious, when Cole, who was suffering from pain and clad in a hospital gown and cloth "footies," had a confrontation with police while he was being placed in a cell.
Cole threw Sgt. Michael Hurt onto a desk, and Hurt and Cole fell to the ground, Marks testified. Then, at a point when Cole was already subdued, Officer Joshua Miklovic kicked Cole in the upper torso at least twice, she testified. She warned him not to kick Cole again, she said.
Marks testified in the trial of Cole's case in U.S. District Court, in which he claims that the police officers kicked him in his sore groin, an act of excessive force that violated his civil rights. The city and the officers named in the case claim Cole was struggling with them and they did not use force beyond what was needed to bring him under control.
After the incident, Miklovic "apologized to me for me having to see that, and he did say that he didn't mean for that to happen," Marks testified.
In his testimony, Miklovic said Cole had instigated the fight by swinging at the officers. He fell on Cole's legs but did not kick him, Miklovic said.
Asked by Cole's attorney, Michael George, whether Marks asked him to stop kicking Cole, he said, "I don't recall."
In his testimony, Cole claimed that he was in so much pain that he passed out once and fell to the ground two other times and that he did not instigate the fight. "Miklovic started kicking me in the groin area and the side and the stomach," Cole testified. "It's pain that you can't even imagine."
He said the gunshot wound began bleeding again.
Cole said he was shot June 16 when a friend asked him to hold some marijuana and a pistol. He stuck the pistol in his pants and it discharged, he said.
He was taken to Barnes-Jewish, where surgeons reconnected parts of his genitals. On June 18, after a doctor indicated Cole was fit for confinement, officers arrested him and took him to headquarters for a probation violation.
One of the arresting officers, Daniel Schulte, testified that Cole had given his pain medication to a friend. Cole then learned that the doctor had given him a prescription not for pain drugs, but stool softener, Schulte testified.
"Once he found out he wasn't getting any more pain medication, his mood changed to irate," he testified.
Helen Knox-Goodwin, a nurse who works at headquarters, testified that Cole had threatened the staff and officers in the medical unit and had refused to cooperate with her efforts to assess his condition.
Cole, 24, has convictions in St. Louis County Circuit Court for auto theft, property damage and misdemeanor assault of an officer.
Reporter Peter Shinkle E-mail: [email protected]
