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http://educate-yourself.org/cn/baytownpays350ktotorresfamily26sep03.shtml
September 26, 2003

http://www.bikernews.net/getnews.cfm?article=1010&badcop=true

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."

Mexican national Luis Torres died last year after being arrested by Aldred and patrolman Bert Dillow.

An eight-minute police videotape showed the officers wrestling Torres to the ground and struggling to handcuff him.

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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