Claims Filed for Alleged Torture by ‘Stun Guns’ : Huntington Beach Police Accused of Cruel Tactics

Two men have filed claims totaling $2 million alleging that they were tortured with “stun guns” while in custody in the Huntington Beach City Jail.

Each of the men alleges in the claims, filed at Huntington Beach City Hall late Tuesday, that he received at least 25 shocks from a stun gun, which emits an electrical charge that affects the nervous system and is supposed to be used to immobilize aggressive behavior. The two men were arrested in unrelated incidents, but both were subjected to “cruel and unusual punishment,” their lawyer said.

“I think it’s sick, what occurred,” said Marc Creighton Block, an attorney representing Eric Anderson and Thomas Lyday, both of Huntington Beach, who filed the claims. He said he plans to meet with the Orange County district attorney’s office Friday to urge an investigation into the incidents.

Anderson was arrested Dec. 14 on suspicion of drunk driving, and he refused to take a “chemical test” and further refused to sign or produce a thumbprint on documents at the jail, according to the claim.

He was then approached by at least three police officers, who repeatedly used the stun gun on him, Block said. He received about 50 burn marks from the two electrical contacts of the stun gun, Block said. Anderson believes that he lost consciousness during the incident, and when he “came around,” officers were obtaining a thumbprint from him, the attorney said.

Phone Call Argument

Lyday was arrested Dec. 18 on suspicion of burglary and got into a disagreement with authorities at the jail over how many phone calls he was allowed, according to the claim. About four officers then entered his cell, struck and kicked him in the face and handcuffed him, the claim alleges. At that point, a stun gun was used “and he received innumerable shocks from this device,” the claim asserts.

A spokeswoman for the city attorney’s office said no one there had seen the claims or could comment on them.

Lt. Patrick Gilday of the Huntington Beach Police Department declined to comment on the claims but said, “We have the stun gun and we use it for combative individuals. It’s an approved, non-lethal weapon.”

But Block said the police treatment constituted “cruel and unusual punishment. . . .”

“Who cares what these people did? There’s no excuse or justification for this kind of conduct,” Block said.

The Nova stun gun used by police officers emits about 40,000 volts and is placed in contact with the person’s body, Block said. According to a brochure on the device, it causes severe, uncontrollable muscle spasms and can leave a person weak and dazed for up to 15 minutes.

Demonstration Participant

Lyday claims that he was not burglarizing an apartment when he was arrested but had permission to retrieve objects from the home of a friend’s former girlfriend.

Sporting a black eye which he said came from a police officer’s fist, Lyday participated in a demonstration at Huntington Beach police headquarters Sunday to protest what is alleged to have been police brutality in the arrest of Mark Kevin Ross, a 23-year-old Huntington Beach man who lies in a coma. Authorities have said that they detected levels of cocaine in Ross’ system that are “significantly higher” than amounts that can cause overdoses. However, Ross’ brother and some witnesses have claimed that the man was beaten by police.

Lyday said he was brutalized by police because he “was being a smart ass and insisting on my lawyer, but I didn’t do anything else. I’ll take a lie detector test on this whole thing.”

Block said the police handling of Lyday and Anderson demands an investigation similar to the inquiry by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office that led to charges against two former Huntington Park police officers accused of torturing a juvenile suspect Nov. 30 with a stun gun. The two officers have been fired.

“This seems to be even more disturbing,” Block said of the allegations against Huntington Beach police.