Student Tasered at City Council meeting for wearing baseball cap

By Terry Camp
WJRT
Nov. 10, 2006

SAGINAW (WJRT) - (11/07/06)--Saginaw's City Council meeting featured a shocking incident Monday night. A Saginaw Valley State University student was TASERed after he became unruly after being asked to take off his baseball cap.

There is a new rule at Saginaw City Council meetings. Men are required to take their hats off. Evidently, they are pretty serious about this new rule.

The man was wearing a Los Angeles Dodgers hat. Officer Doug Stacer of the Saginaw Police Department asked him to remove the hat. The man raised his voice and did not remove the hat.

As the officer tried to grab the hat and then tried to grab the man, the man with the hat tried to kick Saginaw Police Chief Gerald Cliff, who was coming to help out.

At that point, Stacer TASERed the man, which sends 50,000 volts into a person's body. Cliff and Stacer got help from Saginaw County Sheriff Charles Brown hauling the man off to jail.

A few people stood up and watched the event; the meeting resumed a short time later.

The man faces possible charges of alarming and harassing conduct -- a misdemeanor -- and assaulting a police officer. That's a felony. He was not arraigned Tuesday.

Student who was TASERed released from jail
SAGINAW (WJRT) - (11/09/06)--A local college student is out of jail following a bizarre incident at a Saginaw City Council meeting. The 22 year old refused to take off his baseball cap at the meeting and was TASERed by police.

The student's legal trouble comes as a surprise to his college professor. Charles Littleton was at the council meeting to get extra credit for his urban sociology class.

Now he faces three criminal charges, including assaulting a police officer.

Monday's Saginaw City Council meeting was going smoothly until the rules of conduct inside City Hall chambers were read.

One of those rules is that men must remove their hats, something that Littleton did not do.

Saginaw Police Officer Doug Stacer asked Littleton to take off the hat, and when he didn't, Stacer tried to remove the hat himself.

That's when police say Littleton swung at Stacer and tried to kick Chief Gerald Cliff.

Stacer TASERed Littleton, sending 50,000 volts into the man, who was then escorted out of chambers by Stacer, Cliff and Saginaw County Sheriff Charles Brown.

Cliff broke a finger during the scuffle. Littleton was at the meeting to gain extra credit for Professor Dawn Hinton's SVSU sociology class. She is stunned by what happened.

"He is one of the brightest students in our department," she said.

Hinton was also unaware that an arrest warrant was issued for Littleton in the Detroit area in an unrelated case.

"He comes to class, he's on time, he sits in the front row, he raises his hand, he participates in conversation, he reads the material, he has relevant things to say," she said.

Littleton missed Hinton's sociology class Thursday morning, but despite his legal problems, he's still in line for extra credit.

Littleton now has 10 days to appear for an arraignment at the Saginaw County Courthouse.