EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — A lawyer for a non-English-speaking Chinese college student disputes a Eugene police officer’s account of events that led the officer to shoot the student with a Taser stun gun. Eugene attorney Ilona Koleszar also said Thursday that her client intends to sue the city over the Sept. 22 incident.
Koleszar says her client, who has not been identified, denies making any move toward Officer Judd Warden inside the foreign student’s west Eugene townhouse.
Warden wrote in a police report that he fired the stun dart into the student’s chest because he thought the 19-year-old moved toward him to possibly hurt him. However, the lawyer says the student denies that he moved toward Warden at all.
Koleszar is legal services director for the Associated Students of the University of Oregon.
Eugene Police Chief Pete Kerns ruled this week that Warden’s decision to stun the student was objectively reasonable under the circumstances and within police department policy. Kerns declined to comment directly Thursday on the student’s contention that he made no move toward Warden. The chief says the two statements didn’t agree in every way but there is evidence supporting the officer’s statement.
