Shocking video shows the moment an epilepsy patient is tasered as he suffers a seizure in front of his shocked fiancée – with police later handcuffing him as he lies in his hospital bed.
Bruce Frankel, 61, has sued police after an officer tranquilized and handcuffed him, claiming he was resisting arrest – while the San Anselmo resident suffered a grand mal seizure.
He said his charges include battery, false arrest and defamation KTVUand suggests that police constructed a cover-up by falsely arresting him on trumped-up charges to justify what he describes as their use of excessive force.
The harrowing events began when the financial advisor’s fiancée, Alice, called 911 at 2:51 a.m. on August 29, 2022 and reportedly said her husband was not breathing.
She expected paramedics to arrive, but it was the officers who were first on the scene, with their bodycams recording the entire encounter between Mr Frankel and police officer Kevin Sinnott, as Alice watched helplessly in the background.
Bruce Frankel, 61, has sued police after an officer drugged and handcuffed him at his home in 2022
Frankel is seen on police bodycam footage expressing disbelief at being handcuffed in his hospital bed
Bruce Frankel, 61, and his wife Alice spoke out about his experiences in August 2022
Bodycam footage shows Mr Frankel’s son opening the door for Sinnott, who then enters the man’s bedroom.
Mr. Frankel was just coming out of his seizure when the footage showed him half-naked, wearing only his underwear. He is seen stumbling and then falling on the bed.
Sinnott incorrectly judged Mr Frankel to have been intoxicated shortly after entering the room, with officers reportedly saying he showed symptoms that ‘mimicking someone under the influence’. He was irrational, unstable and violent.”
But Frankel appears helpless when officers come in and go straight to him without asking his partner what’s going on, it’s alleged.
“If the police had asked (my wife) Alice two questions: ‘What’s going on?’ and ‘Has this happened before?’ We wouldn’t be here today,” Frankel told KTVU. ‘But that officer didn’t do that at all. He assumed he knew what was going on and attacked me.”
Sinnott reportedly wrote in his police report that Mr. Frankel had actively resisted for more than two minutes during the encounter, and that he had used the Taser to get him to comply.
The officer also allegedly claimed that he feared for his safety and that he warned Frankel twice that he was going to taser him.
Frankel is seen staggering around his bedroom as police enter, while his wife appears to support him
Officers are seen pinning down Mr. Frankel during the encounter. One told him to ‘stop fighting’
Sinnott appears to feel threatened in the images and tells Frankel to ‘stop resisting.’
‘Stop fighting. Lie on your stomach. I want to help you. Stop fighting or you’ll get a bag. Would you like to get a bag?’
Frankel tells him to “leave me alone” several times. He is not seen actively pushing the officer at any point, but instead appears to be trying to get away from him.
‘Stop. Baby. They’re trying to help you,” Alice Frankel repeatedly tells her partner.
Frankel screams and moans as he continues to protest his treatment, before Sinnott pulls out his taser and shocks him in the back.
The 61-year-old then falls to the ground and hits his head on a piece of furniture.
A few minutes later, at 3:03 a.m., more officers and three paramedics show up, help put the handcuffs on Frankel and lift him onto the bed.
In his police report, Sinnott reportedly wrote that Frankel pushed his wife during the incident, although no such push is seen on camera.
Frankel’s attorneys say the charges are part of a cover-up, claiming Sinnott “made a false statement to the Marin County District Attorney’s Office in hopes that the accuser will be charged with a serious crime he did not commit.”
Frankel reportedly spent more than $10,000 on a criminal defense attorney to fight the charges, and ultimately the Marin County district attorney did not file charges against him.
Police allegedly prohibited Alice from going to the hospital with her partner, meaning she could not explain the background to his condition, the lawsuit said.
‘The officers not only deprived the plaintiff’s doctors of relevant information; they have filled the vacuum with false information,” the report claims.
Mr Frankel looks exhausted in his hospital bed after being admitted the night he was tasered
He was later released from the hospital and led back out in handcuffs, clearly distraught
Frankel was given hospital scrubs and placed in a room, where separate police bodycam footage shows him handcuffed to the bed.
He seems to have no energy left and expresses disbelief that he is being handcuffed again.
They tell him “you’re under arrest for what happened in the house,” to which he protests, asking how they can arrest someone who “had no idea what he was doing.”
He was later released from the hospital and led back out in handcuffs, clearly distraught, despite the fact that a neurologist had diagnosed him with a grand mal seizure.
He was booked into the Marin County Jail. When he got out, he couldn’t remember his wife’s phone number and reportedly had to walk half a kilometer in slippers to a gas station, where employees helped him get a taxi home.
Police Chief Michael Norton told KTVU that his department “regrets that Bruce Frankel has chosen to file a lawsuit against us for an alleged improper emergency medical response to him.”
Lawyer Alison Berry Wilkinson, who represents four of the officers involved, said an internal investigation found their use of force was justified.
“The allegations in the lawsuit against these officers bear no resemblance to reality and are outrageous,” she told KTVU.
“The officers who responded to the scene to assist in response to the medical call did an extraordinary job in very difficult circumstances.”