Deputies dump paralyzed man from wheelchair

"You're blocking the fire exit!"

Four sheriff's deputies have been suspended after purposely tipping a paralyzed man out of his wheelchair onto a jailhouse floor, authorities said.

I can't wait to hear the explanation for this one.

Surveillance footage from Jan. 29 shows Hillsborough County Deputy Charlette Marshall-Jones, 44, dumping Brian Sterner out of his wheelchair and searching him on the floor after he was brought in on a warrant after a traffic violation.

Should he be driving?

Sterner, 32, said when he was taken into a booking room and told to stand up, Jones grew agitated when he told her that he could not.

Don't know if you've noticed officer, but that isn't a growth on his ass, it's a wheelchair, one of the first signs of a persons inability to stand up, hence the wheels.

"She was irked that I wasn't complying to what she was telling me to do," he told The Tampa Tribune in Tuesday's edition. "It didn't register with her that she was asking me to do something I can't do."

These are the people patroling our streets. Wonderful.

Sterner can drive a car but has not been able to walk since a 1994 wrestling accident. He has no feeling below his sternum and has partial use of his arms.

Then how the hell does he drive a car. I guess not too well, hence the traffic violation.

Jones has been suspended without pay, and Sgt. Gary Hinson, 51, Cpl. Steven Dickey, 45 and Cpl. Decondra Williams, 36 have also been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

You have to wonder what these people are thinking. I mean, they have to know they are on videotape in their own station. It's basic common sense that you just don't push someone out of a wheelchair in public. That's something best saved for private residences, dark alley's and stairwells.

"The actions are indefensible at every level," Chief Deputy Jose Docobo said. "Based on what I saw, anything short of dismissal would be inappropriate."

Agreed.

A woman who answered Jones' telephone said Jones was unavailable.

"She's out back throwing things at blind children."