Resisting, Assaulting, Beating or Wounding an Officer

My question involves criminal law for the state of:South Carolina

About 2 years ago, I was pulled over by an LEO. he ordered me out of my vehicle and into the back of his cruiser after asking one question about the condition of my vehicle. I asled if I was being detained. He said no. I asked if I was being arrested. He said yes. I asked what I was being arrested for but he did not answer, putting me in the back of the car with no incident.

I was concerned about his intentions and reason for arresting me, so I knocked on the window of the car. It may have been a bit harder than I intended as I was very nervous and suffer from Tourette Syndrome which has the convenient effect of making me move semi/involuntarily due to nervousness. The officer came to the door, opened it, pulled me out, and without uttering a word of warning, shot me point-blank in the gut with a taser. He was too close for the taser to be effective, and reacting to the pain, I pulled the leads out. The next glob of time is not clear as I was being continually tased by the first officer and then by 2 more officers who joined in. The police report states that and officer's hand was breaking. I have no idea how this happened, as I was busy being subdued by 3 officers (I was unarmed and made no threat unless it was uttered while being tased). They did not relent until I was laying on the road, passed out and convulsing, at which time the initial officer called an ambulance. I came to briefly in the ambulance, screaming and seizing from post-trauma shock. I thought I was still being tased but I was not. I cannot describe the amount of pain and fear I felt in words.

Upon arrival at the hospital, I was taken to Intensive Care. I was admitted with liver shock, kidney failure, and rhabdomyolysis from the taser burns (I had 10 *pairs* of wounds from the 3 officers). The officer told my doctor that he had found a grey market designer drug in my moving van. (I have never seen said drug in person, only read about it in the news). The police report does not reflect this fiction, but the hospital record has references to it on every page. I was treated poorly by the doctor on this basis, though miraculously I did recover. after several days of being shackled to my ICU bed by the police organization who initially pulled me and rode with me to the hospital, the police left with no explanation. I did mostly recover, getting out after a bit more than a week in the hospital. I am in constant pain every day as the nerves in my left leg (most taser wounds and rhabdo were on the left side) and I don't know if I will ever really get healthy again, though my liver and kidneys seem to be okay. I never sued the police who did this as I feared them coming after me again (post traumatic stress disorder response, I reckon).

21 months later, I get pulled over and charged with DWLR and they pull up a warrant accusing me of assaulting an officer and resisting arrest. I lost my job almost immediately, and it is a huge loss as it paid well and I was finally making some progress financially. Upon being relocated to South Carolina (I live in NC) I found I had one charge of "Resisting / Assault, beat, or wound police officer serving process or while resisting arrest". So not only am I half crippled and unable to do much physical labor or walk or stand for extended periods, but now almost 2 years later, after checking regularly to ensure there was no warrant (still haven't been able to pull one up other than through these particular jurisdictions - even an LEO in my county couldn't find information), I am now jobless and accused of committing a felony. I don't even remember the other officers by name or appearance (only vaguely sensed extra hands) and I couldn't possibly remember what may have happened to break that officer's hand. I didn't remember most of the injuries I received either, save for the first taser shot. Officers and civilians I've spoken to seem to think this is ridiculous and will be thrown out, but my life is already in a shambles and I don't know what to do. Please advise.

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21 months later, I get pulled over and charged with DWLR and they pull up a warrant accusing me of assaulting an officer and resisting arrest. I lost my job almost immediately, and it is a huge loss as it paid well and I was finally making some progress financially. Upon being relocated to South Carolina (I live in NC) I found I had one charge of "Resisting / Assault, beat, or wound police officer serving process or while resisting arrest". So not only am I half crippled and unable to do much physical labor or walk or stand for extended periods, but now almost 2 years later, after checking regularly to ensure there was no warrant (still haven't been able to pull one up other than through these particular jurisdictions - even an LEO in my county couldn't find information), I am now jobless and accused of committing a felony. I don't even remember the other officers by name or appearance (only vaguely sensed extra hands) and I couldn't possibly remember what may have happened to break that officer's hand. I didn't remember most of the injuries I received either, save for the first taser shot. Officers and civilians I've spoken to seem to think this is ridiculous and will be thrown out, but my life is already in a shambles and I don't know what to do. Please advise.

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Not remembering the situation is not generally a defense, even if you can prove you don't remember and are not simply claiming not to remember.



Give a more precise time, in regards to how long ago it was. It is critically important.

It sounds as if you need to hire an attorney to assist you with the charges. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.

Your lack of memory of the incident may be a problem if you go to trial as you will be unable to testify on your own behalf ... though it is likely that your attorney would discourage this anyway.

Mild rhabdomyolysis has been reported in roughly 1% of Taser incidents using older models of the device, but with no actual evidence of causation. Rhabdomyolysis, as well as kidney and liver disease, are associated with drug use and would explain why the hospital was so concerned about what illicit drugs you might have taken prior to your hospitalization. I guess your argument would be that the rhabdomyolysis triggered the release of chemicals from your muscles that overwhelmed your kidneys, but the connection with the liver would be... what? Do any doctors share your opinion as to the cause of your symptoms? It sounds like your treating physicians attributed your symptoms to drug use. One way or another, you decided not to try to make a case out of it, so it's irrelevant to your present situation.

Any chance that there's video of your arrest? Were any recordings of the stop and subsequent exchanges with dispatch preserved?