On Friday, Steve and I attended the “Taser Trial” at City Hall. First, I must say the renovation of the 31st District Court is beautiful; a classic courtroom with wood accents and vintage furniture. The seats for the public were at one time pews in a Catholic church with kneelers and hymnals.
Family and friends of Dupuis packed into the pews on the right with a few college students attending for a class. We sat on the left with Graham’s family and friends, and numerous visiting Hamtramck PD officers. A cameraman from FOX2 also sat in the back briefly.
The jury consisted of 4 men and 3 women. Three of the men were non-white, possibly Middle Eastern or Southeast Asian. Mr. Hammoud, the attorney sent by the prosecutor’s office, is an ESL speaker, Arabic possibly being his first language. The investigating officer, Sgt. Bielecki, was seated next to the prosecutor. A Mr. Sullivan represented Dupuis.
Graham testified first. She has been employed by the HPD 8 years. She said that on that day, she was driving, and Dupuis asked her to stop at a gas station for a drink. She drove to a gas station, but past the first entrance “messing with him”. He grabbed the wheel for a second, and then stopped. She told him to “calm down”, and he pulled out his taser, removed the cartridge, removed the safety, and “cranked it once”. She was intimidated by the crackling and said, “I know you’re not going to tase me.” Dupuis jabbed towards her twice with the taser off, and then jabbed her thigh and “cranked it again”. She went straight to the station, made a report, and offered to show the marks to Lt. Mathias. She did not seek medical attention.
On cross examination, Graham agreed that she wrote 2 reports about the incident, one immediately after, and another more detailed report later. That day, they stopped at a bank and a jewelry store immediately before. She admitted that Dupuis may have bought her a gift while vacationing in Hawaii, though she didn’t remember receiving a call from him after she had been in an auto accident. Graham received training on tasers, but did not accept a shock herself as some officers did. She was positive the trigger was pulled twice, and was told by someone that the firing data matched. She tried to withdraw her complaint a couple hours after filing it, but her request was not honored.
Lt. Mathias, a 40-year veteran (possibly misheard “14 years”) of the HPD, testified that Graham came into the station and made an excited utterance that she couldn’t work with Dupuis anymore because he “dry stunned her”. He said it was improper for Dupuis to pull the taser. He did not confiscate the taser, and had to retrieve it from another officer Dupuis passed it onto in order to preserve it as evidence. Mathias said he sent Graham and Dupuis home. He did not look at Graham’s thigh because he felt it would have been inappropriate.
On cross examination, Mathias was asked about Graham’s testimony that she finished her shift, and he conceded that may have been true, and Dupuis also may have worked at a desk the rest of the night. Dupuis was not arrested, a warrant was not requested, nor was his statement taken that night. Mathias said he called an off-duty detective in “within the hour”, but it was actually over 2 hours. Mathias was asked if police officers have a “different sense of humor”, and if he had ever said something to the effect that he could “trump up charges”. He agreed he had, but felt the quote was taken out of context.
Detective Crachiola, HPD officer 11 years, testified that she took the photos of Graham’s thigh. She is not trained as an evidence technician and no scale was shown. She described the marks as 2 circles, approximately an inch apart, less then 1/8th inch across. She had never seen a taser injury before, and agreed there were no lines between the marks or swelling.
Lt. Sarafino, HPD officer for 20 years, testified that he downloaded the data from the taser, and printed a report on November 30. The report showed the weapon was fired on November 3, at 15:24 hours, once for 1 second. Sarafino believed the report would show two entries if the weapon were fired twice. The defense attorney asked if information had been downloaded when Officer Nolan was tased, but it was ruled inadmissible.
Officer Aiello, HPD officer the last 11 years, trains Hamtramck officers on taser use and gave a demonstration (later seen on FOX2 news). The attorney for the prosecution claimed to be afraid of the tasers, and gingerly moved them from his table to the witness stand. Aiello testified that taking the cartridge out of a taser is like removing the magazine from a gun. A drive stun only affects the local area. It is protocol to perform a function test at the beginning of each shift. Tasers fire for 5 seconds when the trigger is pulled. Turning the safety on during the 5 second period is the only way to stop it, which is common practice when performing a function test.
Sgt. Bielecki, HPD officer for 24 years, testified that he wrote the warrant request to the prosecutors office, and asked for the video and taser report in the course of his investigation. When asked why he didn’t get the report or video sooner, he said downloading was “not immediately urgent” and the video shows outside of the car and has no sound. He was assigned to this case by Chief Doyle. The investigation was not referred to Michigan State Police, nor were they consulted, which was also Doyle’s decision. He was asked if he saw any problem with the discrepancies between his report and the report from the taser, he said he didn’t. The defense attorney said Bielecki led the prosecutor’s office to believe the taser was fired twice when he didn’t have the report yet, and asked if he felt he had a responsibility to present exculpatory evidence. Bielecki said he had sent a report to the prosecutor’s office “by mistake”. A warrant was issued on December 2.
The prosecution rested. The defense moved for a mistrial on the grounds that improper statements were made and hearsay introduced. His motion was denied.
The first witness for the defense was the president of Michigan Taser. He explained that a “drive stun” effects the localized area between the probes. If the trigger is pulled twice during the 5-second firing time, only one is recorded. Turning on the safety is the only way to cause a 1-second firing. While cross examining this witness, the attorney for the prosecution was holding a taser very comfortably; so comfortable that he used his own leg to illustrate his questions. He also referred to the probes as “arrows”, and continually talked about the probes until the defense objected on the grounds that they were irrelevant.
The expert said the printed report was correct assuming the software, computer, and taser were working properly, and other than printing a report, there is no way to tell when a taser had been fired. He recommends a function test before every shift. He still instructs courses, though not for Taser International, and was not paid for his appearance in court. He said injuries vary depending on the duration of contact, and can include swelling or blisters.
Ronald Dupuis testified that there are many practical jokers at the police department. That day, Graham was working a double shift. They stopped at a bank, and a jewelry store, and then he asked if she would stop at a gas station so he could buy something to drink. She told him he would have to wait until lunch. Lunch wouldn’t be for another 4 hours, so he didn’t believe her. On the way there, she slowed down to tease him more. They were joking back and forth, when he realized his vest had opened his holster, and it reminded him to perform a function test. He tested the taser, and said something like, “I don’t want to accidentally tase you when I collapse from dehydration.” He pointed it at her a couple times while it was off. She said, “You can get something to drink after I put some paper on this,” and started to return to the station. He thought she was joking. Practical jokes are common at the police department, like hiding equipment in the freezer.
Dupuis said he did not intend to touch Graham with the taser and had no reason to because they were friends. He called to tell her about extra shifts, and bought her a gift while he was on vacation. The prosecutor asked why Dupuis had said he accidentally tased Graham in a meeting with the prosecutor on November 15. Dupuis said he had started to doubt himself because he didn’t think Graham would lie. He denied grabbing the steering wheel.
During closing arguments, the prosecution tried to portray Dupuis as an abuser who was blaming his victim, and claimed the records were faulty. The defense said that tasers are designed to stop false accusations against police officers, and encouraged the jury to look at the physical evidence. He left them with the thought that if the marks on Graham’s leg were from a taser, it was not the taser in evidence.
Within an hour of deliberation, the jury returned a not guilty verdict.
Hamtramck Star
Run out of Ypsilanti since 2005
Why was Dupuis fired agin? Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t he was fired for tasering Ofc. Graham, which we now know was impossible?
I also found it interesting that Sgt. Bielecki doesn’t see a problem with the discrepancy between Graham’s report(s) and the records on the taser that clearly show it was fired only once.
This doesn’t exactly inspire conficence in our PD. It looks like this case should never have gone to trial. It also looks like Dupuis was fired because of an inaccurate or false police report.
I know Dupuis was on Doyle’s “shit list” but the way this was handled, it’s now obvious that they were looking for any excuse to fire him.
Why did the video from the police car have no sound?
Why wasn’t this reported to the MSP?
What the hell is goin on at our PD?! Maybe someone can explain how this was all just an honest mistake and the PD didn’t have it in for Dupuis.
Welcome to Hamtramck.
FIRE DOYLE……you cant even respect the position anymore. he is not worth calling a chief. the city does it to itself, and EVEN in the face of reality and judicial outcome, people are still going to be “haters” to dupuis.
Totally agree, mike. I hope Dupuis will still want to work here. The city absolutely does do this to itself, and I don’t accept that we have to put up with it because we live in Hamtramck.
The Detroit News just posted a completely worthless article on their website. They didn’t even get the dates right.
Great coverage guys. Seriously.
Not Guilty verdict notwithstanding, the outcome here is still fairly ambiguous; the bottom line is that officers were clowning around with a weapon in a moving police car. Not sure where the vindication lies.
You have to search hard to find bright spots in this police department. A change is due. A chief here and an officer there isn’t going to do it–the whole joint requires a thorough culture change. This, added in with this fire department contract bamboozle, is leaving me hungry for a brand new, top-to-bottom public safety department. But that’s me: a dreamer.
Again, great job Hamtramck Star.
Mike.
“Not Guilty verdict notwithstanding, the outcome here is still fairly ambiguous; the bottom line is that officers were clowning around with a weapon in a moving police car. Not sure where the vindication lies.”
I don’t think there was anything ambiguous about it. Dupuis was not treated the same as other officers, or in accordance with the union contract. When officers have been accused of assault and battery in the past, they were put on desk duty until their case was decided. Five months on desk duty and a write-up would have been more than enough consequence for pointing a taser with no cartridge at another police officer in jest after a function test. Instead, he was prosecuted for assault and battery, fired from his job, and skewered in the media internationally with a string of lies that surely originated from our police department.
I can appreciate that our City Manager has his hands full, but the City Council has absolutely no excuse for supporting Doyle’s politically motivated firings, and they’re going to cost the city big.
It shouldn’t be necessary to butcher our fire department in order to change the culture at the police department. The fire department’s actions got rid of Schimmel, and for that we should all be thankful. It’s my understanding that the union was willing to talk to the city about renegotiating before the council threatened them with privatization.
If I was Ronald Dupuis, I’d have his lawyers sue for damages.
Much Ado About Nothing while wrecking his career and reputation. Unsubstantiated allegations in print and on TV and where did they get this information?
I’d like to add that Officer Dupuis should sue the living hell out of the chief and Officer Graham. After reading the rendition, sounds nothing like what was portrayed in the media at all. Thank you Hamtramck Star for having the balls to step up to the plate and report what the hell is really going on! “Trumping up” charges? Why does this supervisor still have a job? What the hell is going on? Why does the city manager allow this chief to continue? Where’s the mayor when this crap is going down?
Officer Graham should be fired immediatly and charged with filing a false report. She has ruined a man’s life, along with a corrupt chief and his cronies. Bet she isn’t fired? Charged with her crimes? Put out in the media as a monster? What about all the corrupt supervisors? Are they being fired? Charged? No that’s right, Chief Doyle keeps his corruption close to him. The good ol Hamtramck way.
And the city manager and council after immediatly firing the chief, should give Dupuis his job back with backpay instantly, and just hope to God he doesn’t sue the shit out of the city too! Even though this wouldn’t save him from the embarassment he’s obviously gone through, it would at least show the city is trying to rectify their gross misconduct here.
I notice the other blog “hamtramckconfidential” that “Mike” runs doesn’t have anything about the verdict. But he was sure to make sure to put all the shit up there trashing the man and doesn’t have the decency to put a follow up up there. He just says above “well, I guess no one is vindicated, they were both horsing around” Bullshit. Dupuis was vindicated. And if he believes Dupuis should still be gone, I wonder if he’s on record calling for Graham’s firing for horsing around too. Even if they were horsing around, big deal destroy his life over this? Cops and firemen all do this practical joking thing, it’s all over TV and knowledge. Mike should stop protecting his people on city council and admit that Chief Doyle is only allowed to do this because the leaders on council ALLOW IT TO HAPPEN!
To sum this up, I see that Chief Doyle fired TWO good cops lately for absolute bullshit. First Officer Whittie for thanking people and then Officer Dupuis for false criminal charges. It’s all bullshit, I hope they will both be back and hopefully with a new chief in the station to correct the miserable excuse we have for a police department.
Rob Cedar comments: “Think what you like, but my posting was to point out that it looked as though the tazering was not an accident, and was not a “trumped up charge” by as Julia would say, a corrupt police administration.
Hey, just found the above from a councilman.
Seems the Lt. Mathias directly contracdicts the councilman. Funny how Cedar brings up “trumped up” charges and that’s exactly what Lt. Mathias testified too.
Just how deep does this go?
Rob Cedar also says, “If there is any satisfaction on my part its that the charges would indicate that maybe it was not a corrupt system -of which I have some responsibility for but simply a cowboy cop with questionable judgment. to say the least”
Well now what councilman? So he’s a cowboy cop now? How about a “framed cop” It looks as though it is a corrupt system so there should be no satisfaction on your part, until you rectify the situation? Of course this is assuming you’re telling truth and also that is unless you are in on it with Chief Doyle? I guess your future actions will let us know loud and clear exactly where YOU stand councilman.
I agree. Officer Graham should be fired along with Chief Doyle and the supervisor in charge of the investigation for allowing this to go forward. Lt. Mathias should be fired too for even suggesting such a thing. Do you really think that Lt. Mathias just happened to say that to Dupuis but didn’t really mean it? I think this case is quite revealing. How many other “trumped up” charges have occurred? Gee, I can think of one other, a “thank you” trumped up charge.
After reading the Citizen it appears that Chief Doyle has declared war on two cops for standing up to him. Whittie was a good cop and did the right thing and Dupuis supported him. Therefore, Dupuis had to pay for his support. I’m just glad that this is all coming out in the open as to what is really going on. The jury saw through it. I only hope our mayor and city council can pull their heads out of the sand and see through it too.
It’s funny how we don’t see tons of postings like before when Dupuis was orginally accused (falsely I must add). And Sandy you are right too, Mike Rehfus doesn’t seem to want to follow up his own defemation against Dupuis. He doesn’t even have the integrity to post the verdict, but he still leaves up the defemation against Dupuis on his site. You really wonder if he’s intersted in change at all?
Regardless of that issue, I hope the Citizen “Zilch” column was right and that both of these cops are reinstated. If not, what kind of message does it send? Corruption pays? “Welcome to Hamtramck” is simply not an optionable answer anymore.
Thanks for commenting, everybody. I’m glad I’m not the only one fed up with our city government.
Diane: Some of the information might have been from a police report. Sgt. Frederick also spoke to a number of the news organizations.
Sandy: This is the third false police report I’ve heard about in the last year, and none of the filers were prosecuted. Apparently, filing false reports isn’t a crime in Hamtramck. I’m not sure how much to blame Graham. She wouldn’t want to be next.
Tom: The Citizen coverage this week is great, isn’t it? Even Zilch sees that Dupuis was “railroaded”.
There really ought to be an investigation by the MSP. The city manager and even city council-members have indicated that the drunk driving detective and whittie retaliation firing are being investigated. Are they?
It doesn’t seem like it.
Oh yes, Hillary, I’m fed up BIG TIME!!!
The Citizen coverage was EXCELLENT! Boy, sometimes I question what is going on in the Citizen, but man do they come out this week and lay it right out. I liked it best when they said ‘enough of this nonsense’ in regards to the firings of Dupuis & Whittie!
Funny we haven’t heard from Rob Cedar yet? Also, we haven’t heard from the mayor, any other member of the council and Crawford. Quite silent now aren’t they? The obvious truth has smacked them all directly in the face! It’s about to step up or step out.
A State police investigation of these firings and false reports should take place. Wasn’t it odd that Chief Doyle didn’t refer it out to the state police. I think the one of the most (and there’s plenty of it) disturbing is the passage below. Doyle kept it in house so he could CONTROL it and RAILROAD it to his liking. Sorry Chief, the jury system still works, even though it’s obvious you don’t believe in that constitutional amendment or the First Amendment either for that matter.
“He was assigned to this case by Chief Doyle. The investigation was not referred to Michigan State Police, nor were they consulted, which was also Doyle’s decision. He was asked if he saw any problem with the discrepancies between his report and the report from the taser, he said he didn’t. The defense attorney said Bielecki led the prosecutor’s office to believe the taser was fired twice when he didn’t have the report yet, and asked if he felt he had a responsibility to present exculpatory evidence. Bielecki said he had sent a report to the prosecutor’s office “by mistake”. A warrant was issued on December 2.”
I don’t think these are merely “mistakes” by Bielecki or Doyle, these were intentional “errors” to get at one of the good cops we have. They should be prosecuted and answer to a Hamtramck jury now for their “high crimes”.
I agree with you, Mike.
It is time to cut all this crap, reorganize from top to bottom, and bring in a professional public safety department.
Creating a public safety department will not “cut the crap” as pkwik states. The same mayor and council will be in charge and the same stuff will be permitted as it has forever. But, I do agree with cutting the crap. I just don’t stand for corruption and “trumped up” charges against anyone.
I do agree with pkiwk that change is needed from “top to bottom” and agree that Mayor Majewski and company should be recalled as they are the ones who allow this “crap” to go on. pkiwk, I’m glad you suggested that even the “top” needs to be changed.
Just one question…..isn’t our judicial system based on “INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY”????? Isn’t our chief supposed to be educated in the judicial system??? Then why, for heaven’s sake wasn’t Ron “suspended pending investigation”???? Seems the chief fired him prior to completing the investigation……and how come whoever was in charge of the taser’s computerized report, didn’t read the other report filed and compare those statements to the computer report (of the taser)????? Somehow it appears that the department head is in it way over his head…..is he now annointed judge and jury????? innocent until proven guilty..that’s what makes this the great country it is….except in Hamtramck……..Hillary and Steven: Keep up the good work!!!!!
Good job webmasters! I’m glad you sat through the trial and let us all know what really happened. Like I said before an inadequate police chief at it again. I wonder how much we’ll pay on this one for the second illegal firing last year? Aren’t we in a civil suit already for another illegal firing in the police dept?
Good job mayor and ALL (solidarity and non solidarity) the council boys, you’ve done a nice job. For hating Schimmel so much you sure are all guaranteing his quick return. Fire that dam chief now! He’s costing us too, too, too, too, too much!
I read the Citizen too. Seems Dupuis was fired for supporting Whittie (the best community policing cop we have or shall I say had). How deep does this crap go? What the hell are the elected officials going to do? And still Chief Doyle sits with a nice job and salary, courtesy of us too!!
Drawings of the allegations in this case featured on the back cover of Maxim magazine are posted on the artists’ website.
The taser incident seems to be taking on a life of its own. There’s a recent Dominoes Pizza t.v. commercial where two cops in a patrol car have a disgreement on what style pizza each prefer—Brooklyn or Philly. One ends up tasering the other. I have a hard time believing that the idea was kicked around after a surge creativity.
I’ll have to watch for that one. Domino’s headquarters is in Ann Arbor, so I’m sure they all heard it on the news.
Just yesterday, there was an article about a lawsuit Dupuis filed against Maxim being dismissed.
Be patient. I noticed not every airing shows the complete cop scene–one ends with one yelling into a megaphone while the complete version has a follwing scene with the taser.
To contrast, my mother works for the state police in Arizona, and she just told me about a tasering incident they had recently, involving one of their officers. “Accidental” tasering among the police does not seem to be incredibly uncommon. (The AZ incident was slightly different – in their case, the officer accidentally tasered his two year old son.)