“Sgt. Jason Shipley, 42, was let go Oct. 16 after 14 years with the Zephyrhills Police Department. The officer he was supervising, Tim Claussen, was terminated Sept. 30.

The Taser incident took place Sept. 9. According to police, Shipley arrived at a home on 20th Street to back up Claussen, who was investigating a retail theft. Shipley pulled up as Claussen was talking to the man the officer believed was linked to the theft, Lester Brown.

Brown, according to reports, opened the door a crack to talk to Claussen. The officer forced the door open and ordered Brown outside, but he didn’t move.

Claussen pointed his Taser at Brown and threatened to shock him if he didn’t come out of his house. Brown stood still just inside the doorway of his house, his hands out in front of him with his palms up. The confrontation was recorded by the digital camera in Claussen’s Taser.

“Come outside now, or you’re about to get tased,” Claussen said.

That’s when Claussen fired the electroshock weapon. Brown retreated and fell on his kitchen floor. The officers arrested Brown on charges of misdemeanor retail theft and resisting arrest without violence. Claussen wrote in his report that he found $112.97 worth of stolen merchandise inside Brown’s home.

Those charges were later dropped by the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney’s Office at the urging of the Zephyrhills Police Department after they investigated Claussen and Shipley.

After the incident, police said, Claussen wrote in his report that he couldn’t see Brown’s hands. Shipley signed off on that report. Shipley’s supervisor noticed the discrepancy between Claussen’s report and the Taser footage and started an investigation into both officers. That inquiry revealed new details about why the officers were fired.

Detective Sgt. Reginald Roberts wrote that Claussen had “no authority or exigent circumstances to enter or force Lester Brown to exit his private residence” and that “Lester Brown passively resisted an unlawful order and there should have been no physical force used in this incident.”

The rest here with video: http://home.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/zephyrhills-police-sergeant-fired-after-taser-incident-that-cost-another/2251879

Florida certainly has more than its share of scumbag cops

Their first instinct is to lie and try to make their narrative fit the story

Usually because they are either abusing someone or doing something unethical

That hero in blue that pulled you over on the Florida highway?

Is most likely a bigger liar than the people that he arrests