JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The sister of a suspect who was taken into custody last night after being tasered twice by police due to his erratic behavior, says her brother is now brain dead and the police could have handled the situation differently.
Paul Testa, 44 was taken into custody following a trespassing incident where he broke down a Southside man’s fence Monday morning. The homeowner who wants to remain anonymous said he believes Testa is a dangerous menace to society.
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“This guy was off the wall man,” said the anonymous homeowner.
This Southside man who doesn’t want to be identified, said Testa broke down his fence, at 4:30 a.m. Monday, but was confronted with the family dog. He says this Rottweiller protected his family from Testa, who was heard screaming after a confrontation with the dog.
“Next thing I know he’s out here saying he had a vision, and once he said that, I knew he was coming here and then I saw a spear that was sharpened to a point, so he wasn’t come here to rob nothing,” the homeowner continued.
The homeowner said he urged police to charge Testa with more than criminal mischief, because he was in fear for him and his family’s life, because of Testa’s erratic behavior.
While being booked in jail, police said Testa became violent and a corrections officer tasered him. And then following his first appearance, Testa again became combative. Testa was tasered again, and placed in a restraint chair, according to JSO officers.
“He was placed in that [the restraint chair] almost immediately and after he was placed in that restraint chair they noticed he became unresponsive, they called for corrections medical personnel,” The JSO briefing log stated.
Testa’s sister told News4Jax her 44-year-old brother is now brain dead, and had no known physical health problems. Testa did have documented mental health issues, including one incident two years ago when he told police he was seeing zombies and demons and told them he was going to kill all the trash in his neighborhood.
A neighbor says he’s not surprised corrections officers resorted to using the restraint chair.
“When you get somebody like that and they are crazy and they are strong, you’ve got to do whatever you’ve got to do to stop him, because I definitely would have stopped him,” the neighbor stated.
This is not the first time a restraint chair like this has been used to subdue a combative inmate.
In December 2004, a 29-year-old inmate, Ezra Jones, died of unknown causes after being put into the restraint chair. Jones had been arrested for resisting arrest, and continued a disturbance in the jail, refusing to let medical personnel check him out. A federal investigation was launched into the incident. In 2008, JSO said the investigation was concluded.
In 2005, four corrections officers were sent to Shands Hospital after trying to subdue John Laughon, who demonstrated what JSO called “super human strength” to break out of the restraint chair.
Laughon, had been arrested for possession of marijuana, was also rushed to Shands, where he stopped breathing. Laughon was revived, but remained in a vegetative state and was released home from the hospital in 2006. The family filed an excessive force lawsuit against JSO. The case was settled, and the settlement kept confidential.
Gil Smith, News4Jax crime analyst said these types of restraint chairs aren’t used in the State of Florida prison or juvenile justice system, but a lot of police departments still use them.
“This person was an extreme example, he was combative with police officers and they had to tase him twice,” said Smith. “In most cases restraint chairs work just fine, but there are some cases where they cause damage to the bones, internal organ damage. If they are fighting the restraint chair violently it can cause more damage.”
Smith continued, “This person was tased more than once, usually when they are tased you can get this under control, but this person was combative while being tased and in some cases the taser doesn’t work effectively on people.”