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Trevon Hanks, former Henninger High School student suing Syracuse police over tasering in 2012. He's at the NYCLU office in Rochester.

(John O'Brien | jobrien@syracuse.com)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The city of Syracuse has settled a lawsuit filed by two high school students hit with Tasers by police in separate incidents over the past five years.

Under the settlement, the city will pay $5,000 to each former student and it has changed its policy to restrict how Syracuse police use Tasers against children and others.

The importance of the settlement is that it will protect other students, said Trevon Hanks, one of the students who filed the lawsuit.

The new policy says that, when possible, police should not use Tasers on children, juveniles, the elderly, obviously pregnant women, frail people, people in a moving vehicle, people in water, or people who are on an elevated surface.

It also says Tasers shouldn't be used against a passive subject.

"I'm very pleased that they're changing the rules so it won't happen to anybody else again," said Hanks, now 20 and a student at Onondaga Community College. He said he plans to use the settlement money to help with college expenses.

"Police officers won't be allowed to discharge their Tasers unless they know the situation, and know what's going on with the student," Hanks said.

He and the other former student, Andre Epps, were represented by lawyers from the New York Civil Liberties Union, which plans to announce the settlement this afternoon.

"This is all they ever wanted, to ensure that it never happened to any other kids," said NYCLU spokeswoman Jennifer Carnig.

The NYCLU issued a report three years ago saying Syracuse police officers, along with officers in six other New York state agencies, were misusing their Tasers.

In the settlement, the city did not admit any wrongdoing. Lawyers for the city and a spokesman for the police department could not be reached for comment.

The settlement for the first time recommends when police officers should avoid using Tasers, according to Barrie Gewanter, executive director of the Syracuse chapter of the NYCLU.

"This puts explicit limits on the way that Tasers are supposed to be used and explicitly encourages police to avoid Taser use against vulnerable populations," Gewanter said. "It doesn't prohibit their use with those populations, but for the first time it explicitly provides the guidelines and limits that will minimize the potential for serious harm or death.

Hanks was a senior at Henninger High School on June 19, 2012, when he refused a Syracuse police officer's order to put his hands behind his back.

Hanks was upset because school officials wouldn't let him take a final exam home, as other students were allowed to, so he could graduate on time, he said. He started yelling that he was being treated unfairly, Hanks said.

He went outside his classroom, lay on the floor in the hallway and called his mother on his cell phone, Hanks said. Two school administrators told him he had to leave, but Hanks told them he wasn't going without the schoolwork he needed to graduate, he said.

A security officer arrived and told him to leave. After Hanks refused, the principal called for a Syracuse police officer assigned to Henninger. The officer, Michael Thomas, already had his Taser drawn when he arrived, Hanks said.

Thomas tried to put handcuffs on Hanks, then placed the Taser against Hanks' back and activated it, Hanks said. Thomas hit him three more times in the same spot, placing a knee in Hanks' back the third time, Hanks said.

In his police report, Thomas wrote that he told Hanks to leave the school. When Hanks again refused, Thomas decided to charge him with criminal trespassing and ordered him to get on his stomach, the report said. Hanks resisted arrest, swinging his arm at Thomas and cocking his leg as if he was going to kick, the report said.

Thomas deployed an "arc display" with the Taser as a warning, but Hanks continued to resist and swing his arm, the report said. Thomas saw a clear view of Hanks' back and used the Taser's drive-stun there, the report said.

Hanks said he never fought back against Thomas and never made any threatening gestures toward him. He said he didn't put his hands behind his back because he was already on the ground and not resisting the officer.

The charges of third-degree criminal trespassing, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct were later dismissed, Hanks' lawsuit said.

In Epps' case, he claimed police recklessly used a Taser on him and handcuffed him while breaking up a fight between two girls at Fowler High School in September 2009.

In his lawsuit, he contended that the police department's policy for the use of Tasers in schools was designed to govern police activity on the streets of Syracuse, not the hallways and playgrounds of its schools.

Syracuse police said Officer James Stone, a school resource officer, fired the Taser at a girl he determined to be the main combatant in the second of two fights that broke out as school let out that afternoon. Police said the Taser missed the girl but one of the probes struck the male she was throwing punches at.

Police and school officials at the time defended the officer's use of the Taser to try to stop an assault.



Contact John O'Brien at jobrien@syracuse.com or 315-470-2187.

Settlement and Revised Taser Policy