The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A 69-year-old woman who was Tasered by police two years ago in a scuffle after honking her horn at a patrol car was convicted Thursday of shoving an officer and resisting arrest.
But the jury in Jackson County Circuit Court refused to send Louise Jones to jail, instead fining her $250 for attempted infliction of bodily injury and $400 for resisting arrest.
Jones’’ attorney, Basil North, said afterward the verdict might be appealed.
“We don’'t think she should have been convicted of anything,” North said.
The trial was Jones’’ second in the case.
She and her husband, 78-year-old Fred Jones, had been convicted and sentenced to probation by a judge in Kansas City municipal court. Both appealed, and the case against the husband was later dismissed while the wife was granted a retrial in circuit court.
The incident occurred June 15, 2004, when Kansas City Police Officers Cory Le Moine and Ryan VanDeusen responded to a domestic disturbance call near the Jones’'s home.
The officers said they were cruising the street slowly, watching for trouble. Jones was in her car behind the police vehicle when she honked her horn and pulled into her driveway.
Police, spooked by the horn, parked and asked Jones whether she had called them. She said no; some other things are in dispute.
Police say Jones stayed outside cursing them after they walked down the street. Jones said she only commented to her sister and a woman neighbor that police would not be threatening a senior citizen with a horn honking ticket in a rich white neighborhood.
Le Moine said he returned and asked Jones for her license to write her a ticket. She refused to give it to him and went in her house, he said.
But Jones said the officer didn’'t ask for her license outside and instead came to her door and demanded it. She says she demanded to know why, and the officer came in and started trying to handcuff her.
The officer said Jones shoved him and he started trying to arrest her for assault. At some point, the other officer discharged a Taser at her, but the prongs missed.
Police threw Jones to the floor and started to cuff her. Her husband, Fred Jones, woke up, came downstairs and tried to pull an officer off and got thrown to the floor and cuffed.