Ex-officer faces sentence for stunning cuffed man three times
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PITTSBURGH (AP) – A former Western Pennsylvania police officer faces prison for violating a man’s civil rights by using a stun gun on him three times while he was handcuffed.
A jury convicted 30-year-old Nicole Murphy in November.
She worked as an officer in the tiny Pittsburgh suburb of Millvale when she stunned Thomas Jason James Smith after his arrest for public drunkenness in September 2012.
Her attorney argued at trial that she was merely trying to stop Smith from banging his head on a desk and office cubicle, though she filed official reports saying Smith was combative and spat on her partner, which that officer has denied.
But a cellphone video showed Murphy and other officers laughing at Smith during the ordeal.
Prosecutors want a sentence of between 27 and 33 months in prison Friday.