Taser Happy

Taser used on dad leaving Houston hospital with baby

By CYNTHIA LEONOR GARZA and KEVIN MORAN
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle


A Houston couple said both the Houston Police Department and the Woman's Hospital of Texas are responsible for endangering their newborn when the husband who held the baby in his arms was hit by a taser as an off-duty police officer as he attempted to leave the hospital early Thursday morning.

But police maintain that William Lewis, the baby's father, endangered the 2-day-old infant by refusing orders to quit trying to remove the baby from the hospital when abduction alarms went off.

Lewis, 30, said he and his wife were preparing to leave the hospital when staff told him he would not be able to leave with the baby. After a failed attempt to leave through the elevators with the baby, who wore an alert sensor that warns hospital officals about potential kidnappings, staff called security, Lewis said.

The man's wife, who did not want her name used, said she came out of her room into the hallway as police arrived and saw off-duty HPD Officer D.M Boling shocking her husband. Boling was working security at the time.

"He was holding the baby when [the officer] tasered him. My baby hit the concrete floor," said Lewis' wife, who was still in the hospital at the time recovering from a C-section. "When I went down to pick her up to take her to the neo unit her scream was so loud and so bad I thought she was dying right there."

The mother said hospital pediatricians examined the baby after the incident and said she was fine, "but my baby she had the shakes real bad. She's not as calm as she was before."

Lewis was first charged with kidnapping, although it was later changed to endangerment, police said. Lewis appeared in State District Judge Debbie Stricklin's court today. His arraignmnent was rescheduled for April 30 and Lewis is free on a $5,000 bond.

Boling tased Lewis after Boling repeatedly told Lewis he could not leave the hospital, Houston police spokesman Officer Gabe Ortiz said today.

Boling's report of the incident does not indicate whether he knew Lewis was the baby's father, Ortiz said.

He said the report showed that Lewis dropped to the hallway floor after being hit by the Taser. Boling estimated in his report that the baby fell from the father's arms about two feet before landing on the floor.

Boling joined the department in September 1984 and was working an off-duty security job at the hospital when the incident occurred.

Records show that since HPD officers began carrying Tasers in December 2004, Boling has shocked at least two other people. In one incident, in February 2005, Boling discharged his Taser three to four times to subdue a man who resisted arrest during a disturbance call.

The reports show that the baby was born April 9 and was two days old when Lewis decided to leave the hospital with the baby about 1:30 a.m. on Thursday, Ortiz said.

Police reports gave no indication that the baby suffered from any conditions that required continued treatment, Ortiz said.

Hospital officials did not address whether they believe the father should have been leaving with the baby in a statement released after the incident.

"Our nurses educate the mothers and their family members upon admission regarding the safety procedures throughout our hospital," hospital officials said. "The security of our infants is our utmost priority here at The Woman's Hospital of Texas."

Security measures identify the mother with a new infant from the moment of birth, they said. "In this case, our safety measures worked. Our infant abduction deterrent was effective."

Woman's Hospital spokeswoman Kris Muller said the hospital has had the most advanced anti-abduction meaures availalble in place at the hospital since it opened in 1976.

"We regularly upgrade it whenever improvements are available,'' Muller said.

The hospital delivered 8,867 babies in 2006 and 8,333 in 2005, Muller said.

St. Luke's Hospital spokeswoman Melinda Muse said that institution also has sophisticated anti-infant abduction security measures in place. However, the hospital does not release details of the systems, Muse said.

"My deal is that I broke no laws and maybe I broke some hospital policies but I broke no laws," Lewis said. He and his wife said they were preparing to leave because they felt they were ready to leave, but "it was like you can't leave no explanation, no reason," Lewis said.

Lewis' wife said "the only thing that endangered my child was that police officer who tased my child when Will was holding the baby ... I don't know how it went from us leaving to this."

Lewis' wife said she was prepared to ask for a copy of the hospital's surveillance video. She also said she may not return to the hospital "because they hired an irresponsible cop and he was taser happy."