Instead of Solving Crimes, Cops Arrest Disabled Woman for Riding Electric Scooter Without a Helmet
Matt Agorist June 16, 2021
https://thefreethoughtproject.com/i...iding-electric-scooter-without-a-helmet/


Brookings, OR — Jennifer Gayman, 49, suffers from a degenerative eye disease and pulmonary disease and relies on a mobile electric scooter to get around. She had been using the scooter for years to get around without incident until 2018 when two of Brookings’ finest decided to target her for revenue collection. Now, because two cops preyed on a disabled woman for money, the taxpayers of Brookings will likely be shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars.

As TFTP reported, an attorney for Gayman released the body camera footage from her stop on November 19, 2018 as part of a $500,000 lawsuit. It is nothing short of infuriating.

The incident unfolded as Gayman was on her way home from singing karaoke with some friends. Like she had done countless times before, Gayman rode her scooter down the sidewalk back to her house.

Gayman would not make it home this time, however, because two cops would stop her claiming that she could not be on her scooter on the sidewalk, in a crosswalk or without a helmet, according to her suit.

Clearly shocked that she was hearing this from the cops, Gayman challenged their assertions, claiming — and rightfully so — that she is disabled and therefore did not have to have on a helmet to ride her assistive scooter. Gayman apparently knew the law better than the officers who had to pull out their cellphones to try and find the correct law.

They claimed to have found the law and then issued Gayman three citations: operating the scooter in a crosswalk, unsafe operation of the scooter and failure to wear protective headgear.

These heroic cops then told the woman that she could not ride her scooter home and refused to give her a ride. They were completely resolute in the notion of leaving a disabled woman on the side of the road, stranded in the middle of the night. Her home was two miles away and with her condition, it would have been nearly impossible to make it.

“I want to go home. You guys are pulling me over for no reason,’’ she told them. “You take my disability act, and you’re throwing it in the garbage.’’

Having no other options to get herself home, Gayman started driving away on her scooter. This would result in the officers claiming she was “eluding” them. The world’s most pathetic police pursuit then began as the officers turned on their lights and sirens and even radioed in for backup — for a disabled woman trying to get home on her electronic scooter.


When Gayman finally got to her house, she found herself surrounded by cops like she had just robbed a bank. She was then arrested and brought to jail for eluding police and interfering with an officer. Unfortunately, Gayman was found guilty of attempting to elude police and she was sentenced to five days in jail and 18 months of probation.

Now more than two years after her conviction, according to the Oregonian, the Oregon Court of Appeals did what it said the Curry County Circuit Court should have done: Drop it.

Last week, the appeals court overturned Gayman’s conviction, essentially guaranteeing a successful settlement in her lawsuit.

“An essential element of the offense of fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer was that defendant had to be operating a motor vehicle,” the court wrote. “The state did not put on any evidence that defendant was operating a motor vehicle when she, a disabled person, operated her motor assisted scooter in a sidewalk and crosswalk and then left the scene, after being stopped and cited by police.”


“The actions of the state in this case — from the police officers’ decision to pursue defendant in a low-speed chase for the … traffic violation of not wearing a helmet, to the prosecutor’s decision to pursue a felony charge under those circumstances, to the attorney general’s office’s decision to defend those decisions on appeal — should not be ignored,” the court rules.

Gayman, the court concluded, “should not have been convicted of fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer for using her mobility device to get home after a traffic stop.”

“It is ridiculous,’’ Johnstun said. “It strains belief that any officer can really believe that the law required a disabled woman to have to get off their scooter and walk it across the crosswalk.’’

Ridiculous indeed. Oregon Statute, 2017 ORS 814.550 (emphasis added) clearly stated that Gayman was in violation of no laws at the time of her conviction.

An electric personal assistive mobility device is not a motor vehicle for purposes of the Oregon Vehicle Code, except when specifically provided by statute.

***

(3)A person operating an electric personal assistive mobility device on a sidewalk is subject to any provisions applicable to and has the same rights and duties as a pedestrian on a sidewalk, except when otherwise specifically provided by statute.

Below is this most infuriating video showing two cops who had nothing better to do that night than harass a disabled woman for trying to get home — riding a scooter that she could’ve driven down the aisles of a grocery store.

This is why rapes and murders are rarely solved.

Why are you such a cop hater?

Did something happen to you?

Should have given a warning

The pathetic cundt strikes again. Didn't read. No sense in trying to discuss, when the OP runs like a pussy from any questions.

Yeah, she tried out for the part of the cop character with the Village People, but was turned down.

Those two clowns need to be promoted to the Biden security team !

Well, it was a serious question. The OP posts an inordinate amount of anti-cop stuff. Thought perhaps 'they' had been falsely arrested, or illegally detained.

[bleep] show.

Cops doing their job.

Karen, using the ADA like a sword.

Cops don't de-escalate, Karen turns it up.

OP,
Hiding his butt hurt toward cops, trying to make himself feel better.

Isn’t he the
Lawyer that rents inmates to do work for him, maybe the cops took away his help?

He was gang raped........

Their cleaning the floor!

Well said

So these people screwed up and were stopped by the courts. It’s not a big deal and only applied to these individuals. Nothing to do with all cop!

A better use of your time would be to change the law so that people who resist arrest should expect to be shot by the police.

Or making the right to keep and bear arms is a civil right. So if you can legally own firearms you can carry them loaded, openly or concealed legally in every state.

Or have every voter registration and ballot include a fingerprint so we can be sure that the same person who is registered submits each ballot, that people don’t vote more than once and that only citizens vote in our elections. This will also enable us to undo the votes of those who vote illegally.

These are positive things that you could work on instead of mindless attacks on police when they are vital to protect society from Democrats and other criminals.

I don't hate anyone. I know cops personally who are endangered by heavy handed tactics and crimes committed by other cops. They share the same concerns but they can't do much because they're outnumbered. I also am concerned that bad policing endangers my friends and family. And then there's the high cost of taxes to support all the dangerous nonsense.

And, um, this specific incident was kind of funny. Who didn't laugh at "eluding" on one of those scooters?

Yeah, there are some serious implications but if you can't laugh at government employees making such fools of themselves then that might be cause for reflection.

When you see the more extreme cases of police abuse it is often cops who work for Democrats or RINOs.

Oh no! She's getting away on a scooter! We'll never catch her now. Better call for backup!

Millions of police contacts every year and you pick out a few ridiculous events to try and prove some kind of point. How about you do some research and come up with some good examples that can further the conversation regarding police /public interactions.



I know you won’t because that would involve actual work like research, critical thinking and formulating your own opinion. There’s no chance you’ll do that because you’re a lazy democrat with an axe to grind.

I have to admit, I'd of ignored her if I knew she had a vision problem and this was her way around. We had an ol' boy who couldn't walk use an electric golf cart to go visiting. I (we) left him alone. We had a 14 year old that drove his dad home from the bars every Saturday night at 2:00 a.m. he'd been doing it for years. It's called discretion. He grew up to be a good and decent man. I'd do the same again.

kwg

If you did as prescribed you would be overwhelmed with the constant stream of incidences. I post hardly anything relative to what happens. This specifically I posted only because it's funny.

Maybe you should lighten up and open your mind.

I think he just wanted to write “Gayman” a bunch of times. I’d have called her Jennifer.

I don't respond to people like you because you're not worth my time. I don't even see any of the posts after the first one. Bye.

Plain and simple, you're a liar.

She should sue for 5 million!

😄

The main reason I drive the Ruckus is that they are DUI proof.

You’d have to be one sorry ass cop to pull over a person on a scooter.

Police should be held accountable for their actions when they violate the law. Something it looks like they did.