By Cynthia Leonor Garza, Kevin Moran and Mike Glenn
Houston Chronicle
HOUSTON — A Houston man has been charged with endangerment after an incident at The Woman’s Hospital where an off-duty Houston police officer used a Taser on the man as he tried to leave the hospital with his infant daughter.
William Lewis dropped to the hallway floor after being shocked in the incident early Thursday morning, and his 2-day-old daughter fell from his arms about 2 feet before landing on the floor, police said..
Lewis and his wife today said the use of the Taser was inappropriate. The Police Department said it was necessary because they considered the baby to be in danger, and cited reports of previous threats made by the man.
“If the father had just complied with the rules, there would have been no ‘Tasing,’” said Capt. Dwayne Ready, a Houston police spokesman.
Lewis, 30, said he and his wife were preparing to leave the hospital when staff told him he would not be able to leave with the baby. After a failed attempt to leave through the elevators with the baby, who wore an alert sensor that warns hospital officials about potential kidnappings, staff called security, Lewis said.
The man’s wife, who did not want her name used, said she came out of her room into the hallway as police arrived and saw off-duty HPD Officer D.M Boling shocking her husband. Boling was working security at the time.
“He was holding the baby when [the officer] tasered him. My baby hit the concrete floor,” said Lewis’ wife, who was still in the hospital at the time recovering from a C-section. “When I went down to pick her up to take her to the neo unit, her scream was so loud and so bad I thought she was dying right there.”
Ready said the officer used the Taser because Lewis, when confronted by the officers at the elevator, made “threatening remarks about this being a hostage situation if he were not allowed to leave.”
Police said the infant could have been injured if the officers had grappled with Lewis.
“The Taser instantly immobilizes the suspect and does not allow that person to cause any other danger or harm,” Ready said. “If the officers had to engage the suspect in a physical altercation, neither could have kept an eye on the baby.”
The mother said hospital pediatricians examined the baby after the incident and said she was fine, “but my baby — she had the shakes real bad. She’s not as calm as she was before.”
Houston police also said the child’s mother called authorities on April 2 — a week before the infant’s birth — to complain about Lewis.
She “stated that her unborn child’s father called her and made threats on her and the child’s life,” Ready said.
Lewis was first charged with kidnapping, although it was later changed to endangerment, police said. Lewis appeared in State District Judge Debbie Stricklin’s court today. His arraignment was rescheduled for April 30 and Lewis is free on a $5,000 bond.
Boling used his Taser on Lewis after Boling repeatedly told Lewis he could not leave the hospital, Houston police spokesman Officer Gabe Ortiz said today.
Ready said the officers responded to the scene after receiving a report that someone was trying to leave with a baby without following the required procedures.
“It was unclear to the officers if this person truly was the father,” Ready said.
Boling joined the department in September 1984 and was working an off-duty security job at the hospital when the incident occurred.
Records show that since HPD officers began carrying Tasers in December 2004, Boling has shocked at least two other people. In one incident, in February 2005, Boling discharged his Taser three to four times to subdue a man who resisted arrest during a disturbance call.
The reports show that the baby was born April 9 and was 2 days old when Lewis decided to leave the hospital with the baby about 1:30 a.m. on Thursday, Ortiz said.
Police reports gave no indication that the baby suffered from any conditions that required continued treatment, Ortiz said.
Hospital officials did not address whether they believe the father should have been leaving with the baby in a statement released after the incident.
“Our nurses educate the mothers and their family members upon admission regarding the safety procedures throughout our hospital,” hospital officials said.
Woman’s Hospital spokeswoman Kris Muller said the hospital has had the most advanced anti-abduction measures available in place at the hospital since it opened in 1976.
“We regularly upgrade it whenever improvements are available,” Muller said.
The hospital delivered 8,867 babies in 2006 and 8,333 in 2005, Muller said.
St. Luke’s Hospital spokeswoman Melinda Muse said that institution also has sophisticated anti-infant abduction security measures in place. However, the hospital does not release details of the systems, Muse said.
“My deal is that I broke no laws and maybe I broke some hospital policies, but I broke no laws,” Lewis said. He and his wife said they were preparing to leave because they felt they were ready to leave, but “it was like you can’t leave — no explanation, no reason,” Lewis said.
Lewis’ wife said “the only thing that endangered my child was that police officer who tased my child when Will was holding the baby ... I don’t know how it went from us leaving to this.”
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle