Members of the Woodbury County Sheriff's Office are expected to treat the citizens of this county with dignity and respect. When circumstances warrant, all of my deputies are trained to respond with appropriate degrees of force. At the same time, I will not tolerate the application of excessive force of the type which you are about to witness. Palm was charged with making a false report to a law enforcement officer, public intoxication, disorderly conduct, simple assault and harassment of a public officer. He also was arrested on warrants from Ida and Monona counties.
All charges are misdemeanors.
Aspleaf, a deputy since 1985, admitted using pressure points to subdue Palm, but denied assaulting him. Even though Palm was handcuffed, Aspleaf contended Palm started to become violent. In my training, you want to ground the suspect - you can control him if he is on the ground. I was attempting to put a pressure point on his neck. Aspleaf's arraignment will be Wednesday in Woodbury County District Court on the simple misdemeanor charge.