No charges in Taser incident
Grand jury, police inquiries end with no action against deputy, student who suffffered brain injury.
BASTROP— Two investigations into a deputy sheriffff’s use of a Taser stun gun on a high school student that left the 17-year-old with a brain injury have concluded with no action
against the deputy or the teen.
A grand jury decided Tuesday that Deputy Randy McMillan will face no state criminal charges for his action, which caused Noe Niño de Rivera to fall backward and hit his head on the floor of Cedar Creek High School.
Niño de Rivera also will face no criminal charges. After the incident, officials said Niño de Rivera behaved aggressively toward McMillan and Deputy Timothy Stalcup, which prompted McMillan’s use of force.
Bastrop County Sheriff Terry Pickering also announced in a statement that his deputies had acted within departmental policies and that he will impose no discipline.
“I am confident that the grand jury conducted a thorough review of the incident, and I respect their decision and recommendation,” Pickering said in a statement.
The grand jury’s decision and Pickering’s finding now place the focus on one final investigation stemming from the Nov. 20 incident.
“The Bastrop grand jury process was a total sham from start to finish,” Austin attorney Adam Loewy, who is represent- ing Niño de Rivera, said Tuesday. “We are confident that the Department of Justice will investigate this much more seriously.”
Federal officials are still investigating McMillan’s actions, but it is unclear when they will complete their review. FBI officials confirmed in late January that they had opened a case, but they have declined to comment further.
Additionally, Niño de Rivera and his family have filed a federal lawsuit against Bastrop County, the Bastrop school district and McMillan. That case is pending.
Pickering said in his statement that, because that matter is unresolved, he is unable to provide additional details about the incident.
Special prosecutor Forrest Sanderson, who was named to handle the case last month, presented the results of a criminal investigation by the Texas Rangers to grand jurors over a couple of hours Monday. The county’s district attorney, Bryan Goertz, had recused himself from the case to avoid a conflict of interest because he also is representing the county in the civil lawsuit.
Sanderson said Tues- day he wanted to ensure grand jurors had a complete account of what happened Nov. 20 at the school.
“We provided all the facts, and they made their decision,” Sanderson said.
He declined to comment further.
Bastrop County officials said immediately after the incident that McMillan and Stalcup were trying to stop a fight between two female students, one of whom was Niño de Rivera’s girlfriend, in the hallway. They said Niño de Rivera didn’t comply with deputies, acted aggressively and “looked as though he was ready to fight,” sheriff ’s spokeswoman Sissy Jones said at the time.
Then in January, the American-Statesman and KVUE-TV obtained a hallway video camera that cast doubt on official statements about what happened at the school and appeared to show Niño de Rivera back- ing away from McMillan when he used the Taser.
Because of the quality of the video and the angle from which the footage was taken, it is difficult to determine the placement of Niño de Rivera’s hands at the moment the deputy used the weapon.
The case had immediately drawn public scrutiny and prompted questions about how police officers who work in schools use force.
Several civil rights groups submitted requests with the Texas Education Agency to ban the use of Tasers, pepper spray and other weapons in schools. But the TEA said it lacked that authority.
Loewy said that Niño de Rivera is in a residential rehabilitation center near Johnson City and will likely be there for the next several months. His mother said in a January news conference that her son was now “totally dependent on me.”