Opinion ID: 179054
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Events of July 8 and 9, 2006

Text: Nickolos Cyrus suffered from bipolar disorder with symptoms of schizophrenia, and he sometimes exhibited delusional behaviors that required police intervention. This was the case on July 8, 2006. Cyrus, who was then 29 years old and lived with his parents in Mukwonago, left his home on that day, and a Rock County Deputy Sheriff found him wandering along an interstate highway in a delusional state. He was taken to the Rock County Mental Health Facility for evaluation and then released to the custody of his mother, Brenda Cyrus. Cyrus and his mother had a dispute later that evening, and Cyrus removed all his clothes except a bathrobe (and possibly boxer shorts) before leaving home a second time. Brenda Cyrus contacted the Village of Mukwonago Police Department, told the dispatcher what happened, and said she wanted her son taken into custody when the police found him. At about 7:45 a.m. the next day, emergency dispatchers received a call from Bradford Williams, a resident of the Town of Mukwonago, who said that an unknown man was trespassing on his propertya new home under construction in the Townand the man was acting strangely. Williams reported that the trespasser wore only a bathrobe and that Williams had a verbal confrontation with him. Lieutenant Thomas Czarnecki, the Town's on-duty officer, was dispatched to the Williams property. The dispatcher informed Czarnecki that the property owner and the suspect had a verbal exchange inside the home, and that the suspect could be found walking back and forth between the home and a garbage dumpster outside. The dispatcher also told Czarnecki that the suspect was likely that crazy boy. Czarnecki understood this to be a reference to Cyrus; he was familiar with Cyrus from prior delusional episodes, and also knew he had been reported missing the night before. Czarnecki arrived at the scene at approximately 7:50 a.m. and saw Williams standing in his driveway and Cyrus standing near the house wearing just a bathrobe. The officer got out of his squad car, assumed an open stance toward Cyrus, identified himself, and asked Cyrus to come toward the street to talk. Cyrus told Czarnecki that he lived on the property and that his brother lived next door. Czarnecki told Cyrus that he was on the wrong property. Cyrus responded by saying that Czarnecki was on private property and needed to leave. After this brief dialogue, Cyrus turned and made his way back toward the house; Czarnecki contends that Cyrus ran, not walked, in the direction of the house. Czarnecki then unholstered his Taser and fired it at Cyrus, striking him in the back with both probes and causing him to fall to the ground. [1] Czarnecki knew that backup was en route to the scene; he ordered Cyruswho was lying on his stomach on the unpaved gravel driveway as a result of being hit with the Taserto remain on the ground and put his hands behind his back. After Czarnecki issued this order, Officer Eric Nelson of the Village of Mukwonago Police Department arrived. [2] Nelson got out of his squad car, and at this point Cyrus attempted to stand up but wobbled on his feet and fell back down to the ground. Though he knew Cyrus was unarmed, Czarnecki hit him with the Taser again; after this second shock, Cyrus barrel-rolled four or five times down the driveway. [3] When Cyrus stopped rolling, Czarnecki and Nelson approached him and commanded that he show his hands for handcuffing. Cyrus was lying on his stomach on the driveway with his hands underneath him and did not immediately comply, so the officers attempted to forcibly remove his hands from underneath his body. More specifically, Czarnecki grabbed Cyrus's left forearm with one hand and kept his other hand on the Taser, while Nelson placed his left knee on Cyrus's right shoulder blade to control Cyrus's movement. This maneuver did not succeed in dislodging Cyrus's hands from underneath him; to force compliance, Czarnecki deployed the Taser in drive-stun mode to Cyrus's back several times over the next minute or so. The evidence conflicts about exactly how many times Czarnecki used the Taser on Cyrus while he was face down in the driveway. Czarnecki testified at his deposition that he fired it approximately six times in total twice during the initial encounter and four more times while Cyrus was on the ground. The medical examiner who performed the autopsy documented marks on Cyrus's back consistent with six Taser shots. Yet the Taser's internal readout of trigger pulls recorded a total of 12 trigger pulls during the relevant timeframe. The officers eventually succeeded in handcuffing Cyrus and called for an ambulance on a nonemergency basis. But when they rolled Cyrus onto his back, they realized that he was not breathing. Czarnecki then radioed the ambulance and instructed the paramedics to step it up. Cyrus never regained consciousness and was formally pronounced dead at the hospital later that day.