A Seizure Made Her Do It?

I Don't know about her situation, and you are right many seizures will cause the person to fall to the floor and not be a threat to others. However there are people who have seizures where they do move around and can become aggressive without being aware of their behavior or able to control it, however these types of seizures are fairly rare.

My niece was experiencing non-epileptic seizures in which she could function "normally" for an entire day -- and at the end of the day, couldn't remember anything she'd done. There are many different types of seizures.

Ambulance Chasers and Union Reps cause seizures that force you to complete the complex motor functions of drawing a weapon, taking aim at someone, and attempting to end their life.

She will get her job back because now she has a "disability" and we will pay for a jack booted psycho to run around town with a gun... yeah!

The average Ohioan can not drink and carry a gun (but a cop can), the average Ohioan loses their ability to carry a weapon if convicted of domestic violence (nope not cops they can beat away), and now cops can shoot other cops and it's a "condition". If an average man would have walked in to TPD and done the same thing his trial would have been over by now. This is a shame.

dbw8906 :

Plus....the complex motor functions, that would allow her to move the safety switch from OFF to ON.

...move the safety switch from OFF to ON.

The pistol that the police carry doesn't have a safety catch on it.

This is just another union thug getting free money from a disability scam. With enough union lawyer money backing you, you can always find a hack psychologist to say you weren't in control when you fucking shot someone point blank.

How much more of these frauds and absurdities are we going to take before we actually take control of our state legislature and impose real laws with real penalties without exception?

Also, Madjack is correct. By their policies, a police officer's gun is ready to fire as soon as you pull it out. It should have a bullet already chambered, and there's no safety.

Something sounds VERY wrong to me with this story. I find it highly unbelievable as do many of you.

That said, Annie and RoyG are correct in that not all seizures are the kind that come with fits, shakes, spasms and loss of consciousness. I have known two individuals who have experienced alternate types of seizures. In both, though, MRI showed evidence of a physiological defect in their brains. Perhaps the officer needs to undergo an MRI if she hasn't already.

So a seizure can make you draw your gun, aim it and pull the trigger? interesting.

Although a seizure that would allow someone to pull and fire a gun is possible it would be very rare, especially in someone with no history of seizures at all (but even then still possible). If the officer really does have this type of seizures then their career is over even with the disability act, because there would be no reasonable medical accommodation that could be made to protect the public, and let her be a policewoman (although I guess she could become a file clerk.

Otherwise she is entitled to the best defense her lawyers can come up with. If the seizure explanation is fake it is up to the prosecutor to show that it is fake, or even that it should not be considered.

http://www.toledotalk.com/cgi-bin/tt.pl/article/67245/Cop_Shoots_Cop

It was reported in the Blade when the shooting first happened that this officer had a known history of seizure disorder and a heart condition. I questioned then why someone with a seizure disorder would be allowed to carry a firearm. I don't question that a seizure could be at least a partly causal agent. The brain is an organ, just like a kidney or a liver, and like a kidney or a liver it can get an organic disease. But again, I question why would she be allowed to carry a firearm if she did indeed have a known history?

Holland I agree with you, if she had a prior history of seizures (even the most common type, and not one where you can aim and shoot or walk around, but either Grand Mal or absence seizures) she should have been taken off the force since a seizure could stike at any time, and put herself or others in the way of harm. Many with seizure disorders can't even drive unless a doctor indicates that their seizures are under control of medication.

I am a nurse and I work in neurology. There is a type of seizure activity that "could" cause this type of behavior and the person would have no memory of the action. I work in the nations busiest VA hospital and some of our vets suffer from traumatic brain injury that results in a total personality change. They go from gentle souls to violent outburst with no prior signs or symptoms. It's rare but possible. Is it the case here? Requires many test to confirm.

I guess it's the aiming part that gets me. If she sprayed the room with bullets indiscriminately, and the gun went "click-click-click" after the magazine was empty, maybe it was seizure related. That's not what happened here.

The article didn't mention if she has had these seizures before. That'll be the key fact.

Personally, I'm not buying it. The amount of muscle reactions/contractions that are needed to pull a gun from the holster, aim at target, and pull the trigger are too numerous. However, I don't practice tortuous or criminal law, so just an outsider on this issue.

jjfad - in the first Blade article, yes, she had a known seizure history prior to the shooting. What exact type of seizure(s) isn't reported. But mixing firearms and brain seizures is never a good combination, whatever the type of seizure it might be.

I'm not sticking up for her. I don't know her. This could very well be a ploy. However, when a brain gets a disorder or injury it can effect a person's behaviour and they may not have control over that behaviour. Why is it that we can accept someone with a broken leg to have a limp but we cant accept someone with a broken brain to act in an innappropriate wa?. I'll wait for for all the scientific and medical information to be evaluated by unbiased professionals before I pass judgement.

If she had seizures before then I hope the victim receives due compensation. Like I said, I don't know tortuous or criminal law well, but I do remember (long ago, in a 1L class) a defense to the defense of lack of capacity is if the event had happened before. If she had previous seizures and decided to drive, then future seizures are no excuse for her harm. Hopefully this case will turn out the same.

With a known seizure disorder she should have had medical clearance to be on the job. How and by whom, did she get cleared to work? I doubt if that information will ever be truthfully and publicly told.

Sniff, sniff, is there a pasture nearby? Cause it sure smells like BS.

According to the Blade article I had read, it said a psychologist had testified that she suffered a seizure.

1) A psychologist is not an MD. Only an MD, specifically a neurologist, can make that call, and that requires a battery of tests. What evidence was submitted to support this "diagnosis"?

2) The prosecutor should get her examined by a neurologist and demolish this argument.