Opinion ID: 2979210
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Officer Hornback’s deposition testimony

Text: During his deposition, Officer Hornback testified concerning the events of the evening in question as follows: Q. I want to ask you about—kind of switch gears and ask you about the incident involving William Totman, the reason why we’re here today and what you recall about that incident? A. What I can remember about the incident with Mr. Totman is that him[,] and I don’t know if it was his wife or his girlfriend, right now I’d have to look at the paperwork to see if they were married or not. At any rate, they were both arrested at the same time and they were a couple. While they were in passive booking I remember them being given several warnings to stop communicating with each other. Q. Who gave those warnings? A. I know I did. Officer Stachoul[a]s gave them several warnings and I’m not positive but I think some other officers may have said something too but I know me and Officer Stachoul[a]s gave them multiple, multiple warnings to stop communicating and that that was against the rules and that it is mainly for their safety. . . . Anyway, this continued on, I don’t know however long they were sitting out in the passive booking area and we just continued to try and process them -4- No. 09-5764 Totman v. Louisville Jefferson County Metro Gov’t et al. through and then right as we were starting to have serious problems with Mr. Totman he was getting his picture taken. Officer Stachoul[a]s was taking his picture and Mr. Totman was refusing to face the camera and he kept wanting to try and talk to his girlfriend or wife and Officer Stachoul[a]s kept telling him to stop. . . . Mr. Totman just refused to follow our instructions. He would not do what we asked him to do . . . . .... So as I was standing there at the live scan machine Officer Stachoul[a]s was still having difficulty with Totman following instructions. He finally said, you know this is your last warning, you know, either you follow our instructions or we are going to put you in the single cell and you are going to, you know your process is going to be delayed while we work with people that are going to cooperate. Mr. Totman just refused. Even after that he refused to listen to Officer Stachoul[a]s, so Officer Stachoul[a]s said okay that’s, you are going to the—we call it the hole. It’s a single cell there on the booking floor so that we can, you know, we can still observe what you are doing in there but until you decide you are going to cooperate with us, you know, that is generally where we put people that are being uncooperative. Officer Stachoul[a]s went to escort him over to the cell and Mr. Totman, you know, raised his elbow up before Stachoul[a]s could even, you know, do anything. So Stachoul[a]s grabbed his arm in an escort hold and started walking toward the single cell. I was walking right behind them and then Mr. Totman continued to be combative at that point with [O]fficer Stachoul[a]s, trying to jerk his arm back away from Officer Stachoul[a]s so I stepped around to his, I believe it was his right side and I grabbed his right arm to try and help Stachoul[a]s keep control of him and to help escort him to the single cell. As I did that, you know, he kept jerking his arms and started kicking his legs trying to kick us and, you know, he was jerking around good enough to where I actually lost ahold of him and he was swinging his arm around, you know, trying to hit us and things. So, at that point I just stepped in closer to him and I put him in a vascular restraint hold and my intentions at that point was to put him on the ground so that we could get him handcuffed and better control him. You know the reason why we put them on the ground, it’s -5- No. 09-5764 Totman v. Louisville Jefferson County Metro Gov’t et al. always safer on the ground for everybody. When you are standing up that still gives people a chance to throw punches and kicks at you. So at that point we went to the ground. I just kept his upper body secured in that vascular restraint hold and while Officer Stachoul[a]s and the other officers got his hands put in handcuffs and while they were doing that he was trying to kick and stuff. I couldn’t see exactly what he was doing because I had ahold of his upper body but I believe he was still trying to kick the officers and that is when the Sergeant ran up and hit him with the OC [pepper] spray. At that point I was also hit with the OC spray once again and so I just held on to him and until they told me that his hands were secured in restraints and that we could let him up. So after his arms were secured in the handcuffs I let go of him and stood up and the other officers escorted him back to the rear security area to a single cell back there. I can’t remember which one. I didn’t go back there. I stayed out in the passive booking area because I was covered in that OC spray, so I stayed out there and washed up from that and keep an eye on the other inmates that were out there. Q. Did you have any other contact with William Totman after he was taken back to the single cell? A. No, sir. Officer Hornback testified that the force he used was in direct response to the resistance of Totman. He specifically denied that he put his knee on Totman’s back while the latter was on the ground. When asked why he used force to begin with, Officer Hornback responded: When I first put him in the original escort hold he was attempting to swing at Officer Stachoul[a]s and he pulled his arm away and was jerking his arm. I don’t know if he was going to turn around and hit Stachoul[a]s or not. So, to keep a fellow officer from being attacked I stepped in and helped him. According to Officer Hornback, the whole incident in the booking area lasted about 5 to10 seconds, and it took place behind the counter that separated the holding area from the photograph and fingerprinting area. -6- No. 09-5764 Totman v. Louisville Jefferson County Metro Gov’t et al.