Texas - A grand jury has indicted a Baytown police officer
cleared last year of using excessive force in the death of a Mexican national
on charges of using unnecessary force against a Hispanic woman.
Micah Aldred, 27, was charged by a Harris County grand jury Thursday
after Naomi Autin filed a complaint accusing him of unnecessarily
zapping her three times with a Taser on July 11.
Autin also accused Aldred of throwing her against a pole,
which left her with a head gash that required stitches.
Autin had called police for assistance when she couldn't get
into her jailed brother's house to collect his mail. She said his house
sitter didn't come to the door and she became concerned because she could
hear the TV blaring inside.
Aldred denies the charges. He said he was trying to stop Autin
from bashing a door with brick when she turned on him.
"This is just a case that if a suspect would comply with
a reasonable request to stop beating on someone's door, nobody would have
needed to apply any force," Aldred's attorney, Gregory Cagle,
said in a story for Friday's edition of the Houston Chronicle.
Autin's attorney, D. Matthew Freeman, said
his client wasn't a threat because she is medically disabled with joint
and muscle pain from fibromyalgia.
"She wants this officer to no longer be an officer for
Baytown or anywhere else," Freeman said. "Unless he's taken off
the force, it will happen again. We believe his conduct has been excessive
against her and in the Torres case."
The Harris County Medical Examiner's Office ruled Torres'
death a homicide due to mechanical asphyxia, which means something physically
kept him from breathing, and blunt impact trauma.
A grand jury cleared the officers and the U.S. Justice Department
declined to prosecute.
Last month, the city reached a $350,000 settlement with Torres'
family after they filed wrongful death suit.
If convicted in the Autin case, Aldred faces up to one year
in jail and a fine up to $4,000.
No trial date has been set for the case.
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