For the Craig Press
Grayson Dennis will be seeking as much as $1 million in compensation for his physical injuries resulting from a tasing incident involving three Craig police officers, significantly higher than what the city paid another plaintiff making similar claims.
The city of Craig agreed to a $60,000 settlement with a man who sued two of its police officers in July 2020 over a tasering episode in July 2018, though the agreement noted the payment “is not to be construed as an admission of liability by the defendants.”
The agreement also said “neither the Incident nor Lawsuit shall constitute evidence of a pattern or practice of peace officers depriving a person of his or her civil rights under the federal and/or state Constitution.”
For the Craig Press
The city of Craig in January settled a lawsuit alleging excessive force against two officers over a 2018 tasing incident, the second civil rights complaint of its type filed against police force members since July.
Croix Orona’s federal complaint didn’t attract the level of publicity generated by another lawsuit with video exhibits of officers tasing a man purportedly experiencing a mental health crisis at his residence on Feb. 18, 2020.
The civil lawsuit by Orona, however, cast police in a similar light as the three officers being sued by another local resident, Grayson Dennis: law enforcement allegedly escalating a matter by tasing and hurting an individual at his residence. For its part, the city maintained in court filings its officers acted in good faith during the Orona incident, and in the case of Dennis, the police deployed the tasers in reaction to his “acts and conduct,” according to court filings.
Three Craig police officers, through Attorneys Eric M. Ziporin and Betsy L. Stewart from SGR, LLC, asked a judge to throw out the civil suit from former Craig resident Grayson Dennis, who was tased five times in February by the officers, who were responding to a mental health crisis call.
The civil suit from Dennis was filed Oct. 15 by the law firm of Holland, Holland, Edwards & Grossman in federal court against Craig officers Grant Laehr, Joshua Lyons and Daron Hashir. The lawsuit alleges that the officers knew Dennis, 27, was having a mental health breakdown and could not fully understand why he was being escorted to the ambulance by police officers, according to the lawsuit. When Dennis later requested the opportunity to speak with his father and girlfriend, officers refused and continued to move Dennis towards the ambulance, causing him to become upset and worsening his mental health crisis, according to the lawsuit.
The year in news for 2020 was full of both stories of cheer and unfortunate incidents alike at the local level, from feel-good stories, to unfortunate crime incidents and the overwhelming wave of COVID-19 news.
While social media and other online outlets have afforded the Craig Press significant internet views throughout the year, the Craig Press staff narrowed down the top 20 stories based purely on pageviews at CraigDailyPress.com.
Story Total online pageviews
No. 20 Craig woman receives breast cancer diagnosis, joining her mother in on-going battle 4,332
When Craig resident Tina Schukar felt a sharp pain in her side and in her arm in late May, she thought it was just a torn muscle at first. When the pain wouldn’t go away, she went to see a doctor, who then discovered a lump in her breast.