YT-ย Sheriff Bob Gualtieri fired a deputy Friday afternoon for using excessive force against a woman, during a traffic stop. The traffic stop happened March 25 at 9:40 p.m. Deputy Wayne Wagner stopped a truck at the Mobile gas station along 4th Street North in St. Petersburg. Sheriff Gualtieri said his deputy lied about what happened during that traffic stop that lead to a woman being charged with battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer with violence. “If you don’t tell the truth, you don’t work here. It’s that simple,” Sheriff Gualtieri said. Based on surveillance video, there is no question in Sheriff Gualtieri’s mind that Deputy Wagner did not tell the truth about what happened that night after Paige Taylor stepped out of the truck. “Look at them clearly and look at her actions and his actions. He claims, at this point, that he was shoved by her,” Sheriff Gualtieri said.
The sheriff said the deputy lied on the report even charged Taylor with battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer with violence. “It was clear to anybody watching it that there was no contact (and) that there was no push. There was no shove. There wasn’t anything,” Sheriff Gualtieri said. The charges were dropped against Taylor. Her attorney told that the surveillance video was critical in this case and said she hopes this does not happen to anyone else. During Wagner’s time with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, he was praised for his work with the DUI Unit. He was also disciplined, suspended for violating the department’s pursuit policy. Then today, he was fired for use of excessive force and falsifying a police report. “In any career field, in any profession, you’re going to have the bottom 1 percent and the bottom 1 percent do things wrong and sometimes that bottom 1 percent cover up and lie about it,” Sheriff Gualtieri said.
Yes.
It looks like contact from here.
No.
Excessive use of force, not one bit. She attempted to take something (apparently papers/ID) out of the officer’s hand. Yep, you’re under arrest, she then resisted. Arrest is good for delay/obstruct/resist officer in the course of his/her duties. Misdemeanor.
Perfectly good arrest (at this point). Did she push… not from what I saw but, did she commit a battery? Technically, yes. She had no lawful reason to interfere and touch him. Depends how the law is written where this occurred as to if this is a battery on a LEO.
If he’s talking about her attempting to take the paperwork from his hands as the, “push,” nice try at creative report writing 101. This contact and obstruction can be documented without embellishment and dealt with the resisting code section.
Bottom line if he lied, the most important commodity that an LEO has is his/her honesty… he’s gone.
My opinion is that if he left the ‘push’ out, he would have been golden with a good arrest with no excessive force.
In slow motion, the cop is holding a piece of paper (or license?) in his right hand in an outward motion as if he was trying to give her what’s in his hand. Starts at 0:06 and she takes it at 0:08. About 2 seconds of holding something outward before she takes it.
My opinion (that’s not worth much) if the cop didn’t want her to take whatever she took, he shouldn’t have held it outward for her to take it.
Considering where this event took place, the Sheriff should be fired for not having 2 officers in one cruiser.. anything South of 12th street North in St. Pete might as well be considered Ghetto.. Plus, they have that stupid Uhuru gang of thugs, Drugs, and dindu nuffins .. etc.
Correction, there is a difference in semantics between a push and “shove.” There was neither that I observed, but I wanted to correct my opine with the proper terminology. However, my opinion is unchanged other than the proper word used that I misquoted should have been, “shove” or “shoved” instead of, “pushed.”
The city will settle with her out of court for $10,000,000..
He shouldn’t have been that close to begin with. Looks
un-provoked to me. Bent shit can for him, go be a mall
cop where you are HE-man.
There is a YouTube vid that has the local news reporters saying she took her drivers license back from him. Who does that?
No. Yes. Maybe.
She looks like one of those “Obama’s kids” that think they are above the law. I’d tazed her ass!
Alright, you asked for it …
Looked to me like she took her driver’s license from his hand? (big mistake).
And maybe he didn’t like being treated like he was not her all-powerful master. He could have just told her to stop instead of going full swamp ass on her.
Fire ANY cop that LIES in order to send a citizen to jail.
Assault on an officer usually carries about a five year sentence, and it is often used by corrupt cops to counter charges a citizen files on an officer.
How bad did the little girl hurt the big bad officer? lol. That’s a good example of an asshole cop. And a fucked up law. How much time does a cop get for racking somebody’s brains? Touch a cop, go to prison. Cop beats somebody into a coma, time off with pay. We never voted in favor of that kind of shit.
I love a good cop. Hate assholes, though.
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even in the UK that would have you on the ground eating dirt !
Yes, good firing. Unruly refugee said it all for me. Couldn’t agree more.
One thing to add – it sure looked to me as though the costumed enforcer suckered her into doing what he wanted her to do so that he could do what he wanted to do.
I’m of the opinion that police are being way too aggressive.
You can be pulled over for a traffic infraction by just driving down the road.
Was she hurting anybody?
The state needs to tone it down and the Barney Fifes need to go away.
As my retired NY state trooper used to say, about traffic cops ‘you should be out catching the real criminals’.
she appears drunk, belligerent and is grabbing something from the officer’s hands…what the conversation was before she stepped from the truck is not apparent here…seems a bit rough though
I’m not at all suprised about over reaction from officer. Doesn’t make it right but dealing with these animals is very stressful. He let it get the best of him.
She started it. No one knows how far she was willing to go.
Does he have to be shot or stabbed first? Asking for my son.
she was walking away from him (with her back to him) when he assaulted her. Watch the video.
He should have shot her.
He should have maced her right from the git-go. Then called for a dog to get in a few practice bites before he clubbed her. Feral bitch needs a lesson in civility.
Why is that woman still alive?
Thug cop with a short fuse. I am glad he got dismissed. Filing a false report will cause that.
Sometime in the near future he would have ruined someone’s life over a speeding ticket.
Hell, that ain’t nuffin, Ill bet her boyfriend treats her worse than that.
IMHO it looked as though he got mad because she turned her back on him and started to walk away. She was no threat to him, though, and that combined with making a false report was sufficient to get him fired.