Proposed settlement in Onondaga County Taser case would cost taxpayers $75,000
By John O'Brien / The Post-Standard
December 15, 2009, 6:05AM

Deputy Tasers Mom In Minivan

Syracuse, NY -- Onondaga County has tentatively agreed to pay $75,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a woman Tasered in front of her two children by a sheriff’s deputy who’d pulled her over for going 50 in 45-mph zone.

The county legislature will decide today whether to approve a proposed settlement of Audra Harmon’s lawsuit against the sheriff’s office and Deputy Sean Andrews over the Jan. 31 traffic stop in Salina. If the legislature approves, Harmon and county lawyers are expected to sign the settlement.

If it’s approved, the money will come out of the county’s self-insurance fund, County Attorney Gordon Cuffy said. That means taxpayers will cover the settlement, not an insurance company.

Neither Harmon, Sheriff Kevin Walsh, nor lawyers for either side would disclose the amount of the settlement Monday. The $75,000 is listed in the written motion that the legislature will consider
The case drew national attention after The Post-Standard reported on it in August. A videotape of the incident taken by a camera on the dashboard of Andrews’ patrol car was posted on the newspaper’s Web site and circulated around the country. After the story ran, Harmon and her lawyer, Terrance Hoffmann, appeared on NBC’s “Today” show, and Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” featured it in a roundup of stun-gun cases.

Harmon, 38, said she wasn’t happy with the amount of the proposed settlement, but that she didn’t want the case hanging over her for two years until it went to trial.

“I just want it over and done with and put it behind me,” she said. “That’s why I settled.”

The sheriff’s office suspended Andrews for 30 days without pay in August, a week after the newspaper story. He’s still facing administrative charges, but the county was required to start paying him again after those 30 days, Walsh said. Andrews has been reporting to the sheriff’s temporary assignment unit for the past three months, Walsh said. In that unit, deputies facing pending discipline report to a room but are not allowed to do any work.

Walsh said county lawyers advised him not to comment on the case or the proposed settlement.

Hoffmann said he believed Harmon would’ve gotten at least as much as the settlement amount if the case had gone before a jury trial in federal court.

In the traffic stop, Andrews initially told Harmon he saw her talking on her cell phone while driving, but after she said she could disprove that, he accused her of driving 5 mph over the speed limit, according to Harmon.

When she got out of her minivan then did not immediately return at his request, he drew his Taser on her. After she got back in the van, Andrews pulled her out and shocked her.

Harmon was charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and speeding. The charges were dropped.

Andrews has said he could not comment. But he sent an email to his family and friends in response to the news coverage. He wrote that he did nothing wrong and that Walsh was playing politics by suspending him. Andrews questioned the timing of his suspension — long after the arrest but shortly after media coverage of it.

The “big kicker” was that a day after the arrest, his immediate supervisor wrote a memo to administrators saying Andrews did not violate the sheriff’s policies on use of force or Tasers, Andrews wrote

source
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/proposed_settlement_...