The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — A UCLA campus police officer used excessive force when he repeatedly shocked a student with a Taser gun during a confrontation in the school library last fall, an independent investigation has found.
Police accountability expert Merrick Bobb said in a report released Wednesday that the officer’s decision to use a Taser gun on Mostafa Tabatabainejad was “unnecessary, avoidable and excessive.”
Bobb’s findings contradicted the results of a separate review prepared by an independent investigator retained by the police department.
That review, which by law will be kept confidential, concluded the officers didn’t not violate campus policies, according to then-acting UCLA chancellor Norman Abrams.
Tabatabainejad was shocked Nov. 14, 2006, after arguing with a campus police officer who was conducting a routine check of student IDs at the University of California, Los Angeles, Powell Library computer lab.
Much of the confrontation was captured on video and posted on the Internet. The footage and resulting campus outcry prompted Abrams to bring in Bobb for the outside review.
Campus police said Tabatabainejad refused to show his student ID and refused to leave the building when asked.
Tabatabainejad, who was a 23-year-old senior at the time, said he declined to show his ID because he thought he was being targeted for his appearance. His family is of Iranian descent.
Footage from one student’s camera phone showed Tabatabainejad screaming on the floor of the computer lab. Police said they shocked him after he urged others to join his resistance and a crowd began to gather.
Bobb’s 77-page report said the university’s use of force policy is “unduly permissive, giving the police unnecessary latitude.” The review also said UCLA’s policies were out of step with those of other universities.
Bobb also faulted Tabatabainejad for not obeying the order to produce his ID, “and by not doing so brought trouble upon himself.”
Tabatabainejad has filed a federal lawsuit against UCLA, the police and several officers over the incident, contending his civil rights were violated and the officers violated the Americans With Disabilities Act. The lawsuit says Tabatabainejad has bipolar disorder.
Tabatabainejad’s attorney Paul Hoffman did not immediately respond to a phone message left late Wednesday.
Bobb and his co-authors found that it was unlikely that racial bias played any role in the incident.
The report recommended limiting the use of Tasers to aggressive or violent subjects; prohibiting the use of Tasers on passively resistant subjects and on handcuffed suspects; and clarifying the circumstances under which a Taser should be brandished.
Abrams, who served his last day as acting chancellor Tuesday, said UCLA police were “fast-tracking” a review of the policy recommendations and police Chief Karl Ross has indicated he will be making revisions to the policy.