Opinion ID: 735432
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: he grabbed ahold of the sign when he went backwards.

Text: 101 Q. The signpost here? 102 A. Right. When he hit him in the chest, he knocked him off balance, and he went back. I don't know which hand he grabbed with, but he grabbed the sign to keep from going over the railing. 103 Q. What else happened? 104 A. Well, I guess they thought that because he was hanging onto that sign, that he was trying to resist arrest, and they are all three grabbing his arms and everything and jerking him off the sign to throw him down on the ground to cuff him. 105 Q. How long do you think it took for him to get to the ground? 106 A. Just guessing, I would say it was probably 30 seconds or in that area. 107 (J.A. at 403-08) (emphases added.) 108 Heideman's version of the 5 to 30 second incident recited: 109 Q. Why don't you go ahead and take the jury through your recollection of what happened after you went back and confronted him with the fact that you didn't believe his story and he was going to be cited for filing a false report by Officer Paul. Go ahead and pick it up and explain to the jury what happened. 110 A. Okay, at this time when I went back to him the second time, I told him what we were going to do or what Officer Paul was going to do. He started getting pretty upset, and he made some kind of statement to the fact you mother fuckers don't know what you are [d]oing, this is a bunch of shit. I told him at that time to calm down, all he was going to do was get a traffic ticket to court, it wasn't that big a deal, there wasn't no sense in getting out of control here. He made some kind of comment there, and he was getting very irate. 111 After I told him just to calm down, he settled down for a couple three seconds, and then he took a step forwards and said some other kind of derogatory term, something to the effect that you mother fuckers don't know what you are doing, you can't do this to me; and he took a step toward me, and I took one step back, and he was starting to yell and scream a little louder. As he took another step, I told him that's enough, you are under arrest, and I reached out for him. 112 Q. How did you reach out for him? Explain how you did that. 113 A. I was standing sort of where my left side would have been towards him. It's called an interview stance. Just--Can I stand up and show you? 114 Q. Sure. 115 A. Anyway, when we speak to somebody, we stand sort of in this fashion. And as he stepped forward, I have taken one step or half a step back, and when he made another step toward me, that's when I determined he was becoming well out of control, it was time to stop what was going on, and I would have reached for him probably with both hands. 116 Q. What did you tell him when you reached for him? 117 A. I believe I told him he was under arrest. 118 Q. For what? 119 A. At the time I believe I may have told him he was under arrest for disorderly conduct or we were going to arrest him for the falsely reporting the incident or I may have just told him he was under arrest, I don't remember. 120      Q. You went to arrest him for disorderly conduct? 121 A. Yes. 122 Q. And you reached for him? 123 A. Yes, sir. 124 Q. What part of his body were you reaching for? 125 A. Whatever was towards me I guess. I don't recall exactly what part of his body was turned towards me at that time. It happened very quickly, a matter of seconds. 126 Q. Do you recall telling me at the deposition that you reached out for his arm and he turned to leave from you and he pulled away, and you had to reach for him again because you don't have him under control? 127 A. I don't think I said that. I thought what I told you in the deposition was as I reached for him, I grabbed--I believe I told you I had tried to grab onto some parts of his upper body. I don't remember specifically telling you I grabbed hold of his arm. I told you I might have grabbed his arm. As I reached for him, he turned--he squared towards me a little bit, and he turned to his left and tried to go away from me, and at that time I may have grabbed onto his arm. 128 Q. But in any event you tried to put your hands on him and he tried to get away from your hands? 129 A. That's correct. 130 Q. What happened next? 131 A. As he turned to his left and he started to go away from me, at that time I was--I had taken a couple steps and I was getting closer to him, and I actually my hands on him--I don't remember what part of his body--his legs met with the guardrail and we both fell over it. 132 Q. Were you pretty close to the guardrail when it started? 133 A. When it started, he was sitting on the guardrail or standing right next to it, so at any given time he would have been probably two steps away from it, the best I can remember. 134 Q. Did you all go over the guardrail in the course of this encounter? 135 A. That's correct. 136 Q. Did that--is that the next thing that happened once you met him? 137 A. Yes. As he turned and I grabbed onto him, his legs hit the guardrail, and we both fell over the guardrail. 138 Q. And the force knocked him over the guardrail? 139 A. Not backwards, no. He had his back towards me and he had turned to his left, and he was either sideways because he wound up landing facedown on the dirt and stuff. 140 Q. On the other side of the guardrail? 141 A. Yes. 142       143 A. If you guys were on the other side of the guardrail--Like this is the guardrail, at first he started talking to me like that. By the time I got up to him, he was in this fashion. His left side was pretty much squared as best I can remember and his legs hit the guardrail in that fashion, and he fell over that way, me basically on top of him. 144 Q. You went over the guardrail on top of him? 145 A. Yeah. 146 Q. He landed on his face? 147 A. Face or side, he would up--once we settled, he was on his stomach and I was partially on top of him or was laying right next to him. 148 Q. Then what happened? 149 A. Anyway, once we landed on the other side of the guardrail, everything was pretty much over. I told him to put his hands behind his back, and he did and I handcuffed him and that was it. 150       151 Q. Once you put the cuffs on him, what did you do with him then? 152 A. We stayed on the ground for a few seconds. I believe Officer Heckle helped me to get him up off the ground. There's a way to get somebody up when they are on the ground if they aren't injured in any way. You turn them and have them sit on their leg and stand them right up, and we took him and put him in Officer Paul's cruiser. 153       154 Q. Officer, is it my understanding, based upon your testimony, that Mr. Martin became irate after--only after you told him he would be charged with falsely reporting an incident? 155 A. He became irate after I informed him that Officer Paul would cite him for that and no accident report was going to be made. I'm not sure which one of those set him off. 156 Q. And the reason you went over to talk to Mr. Martin was to inform him what was going on? 157
158 Q. And when he became irate, did he become angry? 159 A. Yes, sir--yes, ma'am. 160 Q. Is that when he started to become loud? 161 A. Yes, ma'am. 162 Q. And is it my understanding, looking at your deposition and what you have said today, he was saying things along the line this is a bunch of bullshit? 163 A. Things along those lines. He was becoming very out of control, very irate. 164 Q. And he also said you mother fuckers don't know what you are doing out here? 165 A. Something to that effect, yes, ma'am. 166 Q. So really kind of angry that he was being charged with this criminal offense? 167 A. He was very angry over one of the two factors. I really don't know which one set him off. 168 Q. And this occurred a little after midnight? 169 A. Yes, ma'am. 170 Q. And you were in the middle of an interstate? 171 A. Actually, we were on Mary Grubbs Highway which is Kentucky 14 over top of I-75 in Walton. 172 Q. So you were over top the interstate and there were cars going back and forth, is that correct? 173 A. That's correct. 174 Q. And you indicated in your testimony, in that type of situation, it's important to control the situations, to control the suspect. Why is that? 175 A. At the rate he was going, he was actually placed into custody for his own safety. He was becoming out of control, and if I had taken one more step back from him, I would have been into the middle--I would have been into the travel portion of Mary Grubbs Highway. You just have to control the scene, and he had lost it by then. 176 Q. And you had to look out for his safety but also officer safety as well? 177 A. That's correct, yes, ma'am. 178 (J.A. at 265-71 & 282-84.) 179 Paul's testimony of the 5 to 30-second episode related that while questioning Serra, he began hearing loud verbalizations from the area where Martin, Heideman, and Heckle were standing: 180 Q. You remember you were doing something or about to do something with Mr. Serra? 181 A. Yes. I was already engaged in a conversation with him or I was about to talk with him when I heard this going on. 182 Q. You are headed that direction? 183 A. Yes. 184 Q. What happens next? 185 A. I turn and go back to the location where Officers Heideman and Heckle and Mr. Martin was at because it sounded like things were getting out of control and-- 186 Q. Let me stop you right there. We'll get to this in a second. When you left them, weren't they generally down here, Officers Heckle, Heideman and Martin? 187 A. I can't testify where they were at. 188 Q. So you went back to them. Where had they gone? 189 A. When I went back, they were back on the west side of the bridge where the signpost is at. 190 Q. When you are going back, you hear this loud conversation over here in this area?A. Yes. 191 Q. Of course that's a lot closer to you than the area Donny had previously been, right? 192 A. Yes. 193 Q. That's a hundred-and-some-odd feet, right? 194 A. Estimated, yes, sir. 195 Q. So somehow the three of them got from over here somewhere to over here somewhere by the signpost? 196 A. Yes. 197       198 Q. I think you returned to the area where the three of them were? 199 A. Yes. 200 Q. If I recall from your earlier testimony they were in the area of the signpost? 201 A. Yes. 202 Q. And you walked up to the vicinity just like you explained earlier where everybody was about three or four feet away? 203 A. Yes. 204 Q. What's happening? 205 A. At that point in time I'm not real sure there was still conversations going on. 206 Q. So, more than one person was speaking? 207 A. Yeah. As I approached them was when somebody announced, as you said before, you are under arrest. At that point in time I saw Mr. Martin turn, grab onto the signpost, and he would not let go. 208 Q. At that point in time nobody touched him? 209 A. No. 210 Q. He was not pushed against the signpost? He was not pushed and grabbed the signpost to keep from falling? He turned around and grabbed the signpost so nobody could get him? 211 A. There's how I perceived it, yes, sir. 212       213 Q. All right. Once he did that, what happened? 214 A. At that point in time what I remember doing, I grabbed Martin's right hand. 215 Q. What did the other two police officers do? 216