Man sues police over repeated Tasering, alleged false arrest

GETTYSBURG, Pa. – A man has sued a former Pennsylvania police officer and his department for repeatedly using a Taser on him in what he calls a false arrest that was caught on the officer’s body camera.

Derek Twyman filed the federal lawsuit Tuesday against former Gettysburg officer Christopher Folster, various supervisors and the borough’s police chief and former mayor. He alleges Folster was poorly trained and wrongly “escalated” the May 2015 arrest.

The underlying charge that 29-year-old Twyman allegedly contacted a woman in violation of a protection-from-abuse order was dropped for lack of evidence, and Twyman was later found not guilty of resisting the arrest captured by Folster’s body cam.

In the video , the officer tells Twyman he’s being recorded, and proceeds to tell him he’s accused of violating a protective order, which Twyman denies.

The two argue for nearly four minutes before Folster pulls out his stun gun and threatens to use it on Twyman if he does not get out of his car.

Twyman says he needs to call his father and wants additional officers to respond as Folster opens Twyman’s car door and threatens him with the stun gun again. He then uses it on Twyman, who is still in his front seat, hands visible. Twyman was Tasered five times and can be heard screaming, “You’re hurting me!”

The borough said it can’t comment on “unproven allegations” and will respond in court filings. Folster couldn’t immediately be located for comment on the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages.

“If there wasn’t a body camera, then Derek would be sitting in jail right now for resisting arrest,” Twyman’s lawyer, Devon Jacob, said Tuesday. “Sadly, investigators’ and police officers’ words aren’t just given a presumption of correctness. … What they say is simply accepted as the truth.”