Derek Douglas says he was asleep inside his home, when Officer Tim Claussen with the Zephyrhills Police Department and two Pasco County Sheriff’s Deputies entered the home on July 21 just after midnight.
What followed is an eighteen minute-long video that shows the beginning and end of an arrest that started over text messages and phone calls to Douglas’ ex-girlfriend. Douglas violated an order not to text her and had been drinking heavily the night he was arrested.
“That cop said all he wanted to do was talk,” James Raper said. Raper is Douglas’ father. He let the officer and deputies onto his property to talk to his son, but didn’t imagine what was about to happen.
"I was sleeping in the middle of the night, around 2:00 got woke up by Zypherhills cops with a taser to the back." Douglas said.
The video starts by showing Douglas in a sleep state move for a second in his bed and then lay back down. The video appears to show Douglas on his belly. There are numerous commands to Douglas that if he does not comply he will be tased.
The Pasco report filed on July 21 reads:
I heard Officer Claussen give several commands, but Derek was not cooperative. I observed Derek laying on his stomach, locking his arms underneath himself. Derek continued to ignore Officer Claussen`s commands to put his hands behind his back, as well as warnings about being tased if he did not comply. Officer Claussen finally removed his Taser cartridge and applied a drive stun to the middle of Derek`s back for pain compliance.
"I was startled, I didn't know what was going on, I didn't know why they were there." Douglas said. "They wouldn't tell me why they were there. They were threatening to shoot the dogs with the taser, it was insane. And they were telling me to calm down after waking me up with a taser."
“He never fought against them one time,” Raper said. “He was jumping from the taser and that's the only time he was moving around.”
The report states that the taser was only used in the “middle of Derek’s back.”
Douglas says he was shocked multiple times and has a picture with multiple marks on his back.
Douglas and his father both filed complaints with the police department. The internal affairs report cleared Claussen of any wrong doing, calling the tasing "justified" because Douglas was "actively resisting."
Claussen was terminated Thursday for another incident captured on his body camera where another man with his hands up was stunned.
"It was justification for me." Douglas said about the termination.
The Pasco deputies involved in the investigation did not deploy their tasers. ABC Action News has requested any complaints filed against those officers regarding that incident.
