Federal judge rules Superior police wrong to tase during 2024 traffic stop

By DAVID CLAREY

USA Today Network

A federal judge ruled Superior police violated a man’s constitutional rights when an officer used a stun gun on him during a traffic stop in early 2024.

U.S. District Judge James Peterson ruled in favor of a part of Ian Richard Cuypers in Cuypers’ civil lawsuit against Superior police officers for a traffic stop where an officer tased him after he drove the wrong way on a street. The federal lawsuit comes as the man was previously acquitted of one state charge in the case.

Peterson’s decision is what is known as a summary judgment. It was specifically for one of Cuypers’ claims – that police violated his Fourth Amendment rights when they used excessive force on him – will be presented to a jury for damages and the facts will not be tried. Cuypers’ remaining claims that officers violated federal and Wisconsin law in other ways will still be tried.

Cuyper’s lawsuit was filed in October 2024 and names the city of Superior along with city police officers Justin Taylor, Taylor Gaard and Matthew Brown as defendants.

“We are pleased with the judge’s decision,” said Nora Snyder, attorney for Cuypers and with the People’s Law Office in Chicago. “The use of the Taser in this case was obviously unconstitutional.”

“(Cuypers) is thrilled,” Snyder told the Journal Sentinel.

Superior Police Chief Paul Winterscheidt did not immediately respond to a Journal Sentinel request for comment. An attorney for the city of Superior referred comment to other attorneys on the case, who did not immediately respond.

According to court documents:

The federal lawsuit follows an Oct. 24, 2024, traffic stop, when Superior police officer Justin Taylor pulled over Cuypers, who was working as a DoorDash driver, after he saw Cuypers drive the wrong way down a one-way street. Taylor called for backup, after seeing Cuyper’s “furtive movements” within the vehicle, which the man’s attorney say was him searching for his insurance paperwork in the vehicle’s glovebox.

Four more officers soon arrived, including Gaard and Brown. Officers Taylor and Gaard drew guns and pointed them at Cuypers’ vehicle, then yelling for him to exit the vehicle with his hands up and face away from the officers.

“I feel like I’m being assaulted,” Cuypers is quoted as saying to officers. “I really do not feel like I am being treated well.”

During the stop, Brown yelled for Cuypers to kneel down on his left knee repeatedly, while Cuypers asked what he had done wrong. After a third command, Gaard shot Cuypers with her stun gun.

“I’m going to die here, aren’t I? Am I going to die?” Cuypers is heard asking on body cam footage.

Cuypers was later cited for obstructing an officer, which a jury acquitted him of in June 2024, and driving the wrong way down a street.

In a deposition for the case, officer Taylor said he did not believe Cuypers did anything to resist officers. During the desposition, he reviewed his body camera footage with Cuypers’ attorney Snyder.

It showed Gaard asking Taylor, “So, what are your charges?”

“So, she didn’t know what he had done to warrant arrest when she tased him?” Snyder, the attorney, asked Taylor.

“That’s what it seems to be yes,” responded Taylor, who no longer works for Superior police.

In November, attorneys for Cuypers filed for a summary judgment on Gaard’s use of a Taser on him. They said it violated his Fourth Amendment rights and called any of Cuypers’ actions far from justifying the use of the weapon.

“Defendant Gaard’s use of the Taser on an unarmed, non-threatening man who was not actively resisting arrest violated the constitution,” Snyder wrote in a November court filing.

Peterson’s ruling came less than three months later. In his ruling, he wrote the law prohibits the usage of a Taser against “a non-violent suspect who is not actively resisting or otherwise posing a threat.”

“The video evidence leaves no doubt that Cuypers was not actively resisting and did not pose a threat to the officers or anyone else on the scene,” Peterson wrote. “Gaard’s use of a taser was objectively unreasonable and violated clearly established law.”

Cuypers’ jury trial in his federal suit is scheduled for July 27 in Wisconsin’s Western District. The trial will examine whether officers failed to intervene and whether excessive force was used when pointing guns at him, among other issues.