Officer felt he had to taser Hula Hoop Lady

"Officer Parks didn't know he was dealing with a citizen who was brain-injured.... All he knew was she was noncompliant and agitated."

Uh-huh.

January 7, 2009
By Michelle Washington, The Virginian-Pilot

The officer who used a Taser to shock the Hula Hoop Lady of Granby Street in October felt he had no choice but to do so, according to Norfolk's city attorney.

On Tuesday, lawyers for Pamela Brown filed a lawsuit in Norfolk Circuit Court, seeking $5 million in damages against Officer Nicholas Parks. The lawsuit says Parks violated Brown's civil rights and used excessive force during the incident.

Brown, 49, was charged with making excessive noise and assaulting Parks after he responded to a noise complaint on the median of Granby Street near Wards Corner, where she hula-hoops. Brown suffered a brain injury in 1977 when she was hit by a truck, and she has seizures and short-term memory loss. A prosecutor dropped the charges in November.

According to the lawsuit, Parks disregarded Brown's repeated statements that her injuries prevented her from putting her arm behind her back, as the officer had ordered. The lawsuit says Parks ignored Brown's efforts to tell him about the documents she had with her that described her condition.

The exchange was captured on a camera mounted on Parks' Taser. City Attorney Bernard Pishko said Tuesday that he had reviewed the tape with Parks.

"We're not defending it as best practice," Pishko said. However, "Officer Parks didn't know he was dealing with a citizen who was brain-injured.... All he knew was she was noncompliant and agitated."

Pishko said he supported dismissing the criminal charges against Brown because there wouldn't have been any point to prosecuting them. Further, he said, Brown had not suffered any serious injury from the shocks.

"The officer misjudged," Pishko said. "He didn't realize she was brain-damaged and overreacted."

Earlier Tuesday, Brown's lawyers gathered outside the courthouse. They said Brown had been injured by the Taser.

"She's a cracked egg to begin with," said Stephen Smith, one of her lawyers. "When she was out there with her hula hoop, she was somebody. Now she's scared. She needs more and intensive psychological therapy and rehabilitation."