BAY ST. LOUIS -- A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against a former Waveland police officer and the city of Waveland in a ruling that found the use of a stun gun against a naked man was reasonable under the circumstances.
U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola this week dismissed the lawsuit filed by Michael Jez against officer Eddie Besse and the city.
According to court documents, Jez claims he was shot with a stun gun in 2007 while having a schizophrenic episode. Police were called and they later encountered Jez in the front yard, the suit said.
Jez told the Sea Coast Echo he was naked when he was shot with the stun gun and he was posing no threat to officers.
“I was marching around, losing my sense of reality,” Jez said of the incident. “They asked me if I was armed, and I dropped my pants to show them I didn’t have any weapons. I was naked.”
Guirola said in his ruling Besse’s actions were reasonable.
“The uncontested facts in this case demonstrate that the officer’s use of force was objectively reasonable,” Guirola said. “Officer Besse knew that Jez was mentally unstable, had a history of endangering himself and others, and was actively resisting police commands.
“It became crucial for the officers to take control of the situation. Officer Besse’s use of non-lethal force, in the form of a Taser, to subdue and apprehend Jez, was objectively reasonable under the circumstance then apparent.”
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