Okay? Okay, so heel-to-heel and my heels are toe-to-toe. Please stop resisting. What are you doing? I'm local. Hold on. I told you no. OKAY. NO. >> It rarely takes much to draw an officer's eye at night. A set of headlights winking on and off. A stop made a little too sharply. Those were the small signals that pulled a Mountain Home, Arkansas officer toward a car [music] one evening. And on their own, they promised nothing more than a brief conversation [music] and at most a citation. The driver behind the wheel would be identified only as Megan. >> [music] >> Over the next several minutes, the encounter she was part of would travel a long way from that modest beginning through friction, [music] through a failed attempt to reset, through a taser, and finally into felony territory. None of it was inevitable at the [music] outset. This is a study in escalation, how a stop with a simple low-stakes exit ramp can instead [music] climb, decision by decision, into a stack of serious charges. And woven through it is a second danger the deputies never anticipated, one sitting quietly in the passenger seat the [music] entire time. Approaching the window, the officer greeted her evenly and asked about the headlights she'd been struggling to keep on. He requested [music] the standard trio license, registration, insurance, [music] and as officers do, tried to establish the basics of the night, where she was headed, where she'd come from. There was a reason behind the questions beyond mere curiosity, and he named it plainly. [music] A sweet odor drifted from her breath. The lights had flicked on and off. The stop had [music] been abrupt. Individually minor, together those observations formed the outline officers are trained to recognize as possible impairment. Asking where she'd been drinking or coming from was simply the fastest way to confirm or dispel that suspicion. Her answers though arrived wrapped in resistance. >> Good evening. Good evening. Are you having some trouble with your lights? >> Well, I I was trying to figure out how to turn them on. Actually, I Yes. >> Yes. Okay, cuz yeah, I noticed they were going off and on, off and on. Do you have your license, registration, and insurance? >> Here's my license. Do you need my insurance? >> Yes, ma'am, and your registration. Where are you guys headed? >> Home. >> Home? Where you come from? >> Registration, insurance, I'm pretty sure you can look up. >> Okay. Okay. Where are you guys coming from? >> We're local. We're going home. >> Yeah, but from where? >> What do you mean? >> What is that information? You have my license and registration. There's no reason you can't tell me. >> I'm just asking. >> Okay. Go search that. >> Hey, stop. >> Lights off. Registration >> Stop right now. Okay? I'm asking because I smell something sweet coming from your breath, okay? You're turning off and on your lights. You made a dramatic stop, okay? You're showing signs of impairment. If you want to continue down this, I'm trying to just rule that out to do voluntary roadside sobriety. >> I honestly am just trying to go home. >> I I get that. I get that. >> Yeah, okay. Whatever you need. >> Okay. Go ahead and step out then. We're going to step over here. I'm going to close your door cuz I don't want it to get damaged. >> Side swipe been damaged, okay? >> Side swipe been damaged. Okay. >> there's there's a traffic. >> Okay. >> Okay, so I'm going to have you step over here out of the roadway so that we are safe as well, okay? >> She'd handed over her documents. In her view, that settled [music] it. And the destination was none of his business. What might have been a 30-second exchange began instead to harden into a standoff over a question that a cooperative driver would have answered without a second thought. The temperature climbed from there. She accused the officers of harassment, insisted there was no reason for the questions, and reached repeatedly for a refrain that would echo through the rest of the night that she was a local, a taxpayer, >> [music] >> and therefore, in her mind, owed a different kind of treatment. At one point, she stated flatly that she didn't like police. >> So, if you would just go ahead and step over here for me. >> What do you need? >> I'm going to have you step over here so we're out of the roadway cuz I have to >> I was just in the roadway and I stepped out of it. >> out of the roadway. >> Okay. What do you need? >> Oh, woohoo. Do you need me to step out in the >> Okay. All right, Megan. >> Come on. >> anything to >> You guys crazy. >> Hey. >> You're You're literally assaulting a [ __ ] local individual when I'm just trying to go home and you all are horrible Mountain Home police officers. >> I asked you people to step out. >> Let me see your ID. >> I want your card right now. >> I'm Corporal Steel. >> You What are you? >> I'm Corporal Steel. >> And what's your badge number? >> 1761. >> 1761? What's yours? >> Officer Rath, 1764. >> 1760 I need to write this down. >> Are you going to do these roadside sobriety for me? >> You know what? What do you need? I'm in heels. >> Okay. We'll take that into consideration. >> Great. >> Okay. What I need from you right now is to go ahead and stand heel to heel, toe to toe with your hands by your side. Okay? >> Okay. So, heel to heel in my heels. >> Or is that just it? >> Toe to toe. >> Okay. I want you to remain in that position until I instruct you to do otherwise. Do you understand? Do you understand? Do you understand? >> Am I instructed Am I anything different? >> Stay there until I tell you to. >> Do you understand? >> am I already doing that? >> I'm asking you clearly >> hold on officer. >> I'm asking if you understand. >> Hey, guess what? I don't like cops. >> That's okay. >> So, you know what? I'm going to sit here and >> It's worth being fair about this stretch >> [music] >> because it's easy to caricature. Plenty of people get nervous or indignant during a stop, >> [music] >> and irritation alone is not a crime. An officer can't arrest someone for a bad mood or a sharp tongue. >> [music] >> What the footage captures is not yet an offense. It's a driver choosing confrontation over the simplest path through an ordinary encounter. But irritation has a way of narrowing a situation. The more energy she poured into arguing, the less room remained for [music] the easy resolution still sitting right in front of her. And the officer, rather than [music] matching her heat, tried something that doesn't always happen on these videos. >> [music] >> He attempted to hand her a clean slate. Instead of escalating, the officer paused the whole exchange and proposed a do-over. "Let's try this again," he suggested, [music] with a little more courtesy on both ends, acknowledging, notably, that [music] he too had gotten short with her. It was a small human gesture, an off-ramp [music] offered in plain language. That moment deserves attention because it complicates the easy story. This was not an officer itching for a fight or hunting for charges. He named his own [music] part in the friction and invited her to lower the tension with him. For a beat, it even seemed to work. She agreed. The volume dropped, and the stop nudged [music] back toward normal. Everything that followed unfolded after that reset [music] was offered. Whatever happened next cannot be blamed on an officer who refused to give an >> [music] >> because he plainly did give one. The path back to a simple citation was reopened and held out to her in that exchange. The question was only whether she would take it. Following the reset, she consented to voluntary roadside exercises. To run them safely, the officer asked her to move from the edge of the traffic lane into a nearby parking lot, a routine precaution meant as much for her protection as anyone's, since standing an impaired person beside moving cars is a hazard in itself. The relocation [music] is where the fragile calm collapsed. Rather than follow the simple instruction to step clear of the [music] road, she read the request as aggression, began shouting that the officers were assaulting her, >> [music] >> and demanded names and badge numbers. Corporal Steel and his partner identified themselves [music] without hesitation. It changed nothing. With her showing signs of impairment and now refusing to cooperate with the very tests she'd agreed to, the officer made the call the situation had been drifting toward. [music] She was placed under arrest on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Up to this [music] instant, the charges on the table were manageable ones. >> Do you understand? >> Uh am I already doing that? >> I'm asking you if you understand. >> Oh, wait. Hold on, officer. >> I'm asking if you understand. >> Hey, guess what? I don't like cops. >> That's okay. >> So, you know what? I'm going to sit here and honestly stand here. >> to be under arrest for suspicion of driving while intoxicated. >> I am absolutely fine. >> Stop resisting. >> Please do not What are you doing? I'm local. >> Stop resisting. >> Hold on. This is not okay. No. No, I'm not I'm intoxicated. >> In the seconds that came [music] next, that would change dramatically. The arrest did not go quietly. As the officers moved to secure her, she pulled away and fought, and the scene turned physical fast. A taser was deployed twice and strikingly, it seemed to have almost no effect on her. She asked, almost casually, why she was being tased even as the struggle continued. >> Get your ass on the ground. >> I am insane. I am not >> Hold on. I am not resisting. I am not >> No. You're about to get tased if you DON'T STOP. >> I AM I AM NOT RESISTING. I AM >> STOP. >> Put your hands behind your back or you're getting tased. Do you understand? >> I am doing exactly Are you serious right now? >> 22 taser deployed >> Eventually, the officers brought her to the ground and got the handcuffs on. One detail from that scuffle [music] carried outsized weight. While she was down, according to the officers, she kicked one of them. That single act is what lifted the night out of ordinary DUI territory and into felony territory because striking an officer is charged [music] as battery here. Second-degree battery on a law enforcement officer. There's a physiological footnote worth mentioning because it surprises people. A taser [music] doesn't always work. Its effectiveness depends on where the probes land and how they spread across the body and on a person flooded with adrenaline [music] or alcohol, the jolt can register as little more than a bad shock rather than the full incapacitation it's designed to cause. That's part of why the officers had to resort to hands-on control anyway. [music] And part of why fighting an arrest is so dangerous for everyone involved. >> I am not resisting. Why are you tasing me? You crazy [ __ ] one. Why are you tasing me? >> You're resisting. >> I am not. >> I DIDN'T >> And then there was a passenger passed out in the >> I didn't say anything. >> Hi. How are you? >> Good. How are you? >> Good. >> YOU GUYS ARE AGGRESSIVE. >> RESISTING. >> OH, GUESS WHAT? I'm not resisting. I'm not even resisting. >> The tools meant to end a struggle quickly don't always cooperate. Trace the arc and the lesson writes itself. The impaired driving was one problem. The refusal was another. But the kick the choice mid-struggle [music] to lash out at the person arresting her is what stacked a felony on top of everything else. Compliance, [music] even reluctant compliance, would have kept this a citation and booking evening. Resistance multiplied [music] it. >> What the [ __ ] is going on? >> Here, under arrest. >> You guys are absolutely insane. You had 12 cops >> All right, Megan. You got anything on you that can poke stick or stab me? Okay. >> You guys are insane. >> All right. >> I'm going home. >> Huh? >> I'm going home. Guys, I'm a [ __ ] awesome >> Throughout the chaos, a second woman sat in the passenger [music] seat and remarkably she appeared to have slept through nearly all of it. When the officers spoke with her afterward, she seemed genuinely unaware that her friend [music] had just fought four officers and been tased and tackled feet away. >> Why is your friend so fired up? >> I don't know. 10-15 10-14. >> Well, what do you mean? You don't see her? You didn't see her fighting with four officers? >> No. >> You didn't notice that? Yeah, she just got tased and tackled in the parking lot. You You missed all that? Where are you Where are you Are you you headed home or >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> What? >> Her blank confusion is almost hard to believe. Yet that obliviousness may have been a quiet blessing because of what she was carrying. A loaded firearm sat inside her purse. Consider how narrowly that detail avoided catastrophe. Had the passenger been awake, alarmed, >> [music] >> and inclined to intervene on her friend's behalf, a chaotic arrest could have turned into an armed confrontation in an instant. Do you have somebody that is able to come pick you up? >> Yes. >> Okay. Where's How far is home? >> Right around here. >> I'm sorry? >> Right >> You're on You're at 62 and Commerce Drive. So, by Pizza Hut. Do you have your ID? >> Do you need my concealed >> No. No. No. Just need that. You don't have firearm on you at this time? >> Uh yes. >> Is it in your purse? >> Yes. >> Okay. Just leave it in your purse. All right? Just leave it in the purse and I'm happy. Um if you got somebody that could pick you up, if you want to call them and get them get them headed. >> Two women, a gun, an impaired driver, >> [music] >> and a violent struggle, the ingredients of a tragedy were all present. Only luck kept them from combining. The officers, once aware of [music] the weapon, handled it carefully, instructing the passenger to leave it untouched [music] in her bag. It's the kind of moment that never makes the highlight reel, but it underscores why officers approach these stops with such caution. The danger is often the thing you can't see asleep in the next seat, zipped inside [music] a purse. >> Where's your gun at in the purse? >> It's It's in my purse. >> All right. Well, so we're going to stop. I don't want I don't want you to keep reaching in your purse when there's a gun in there. >> Yeah, that's why I said >> You need to call somebody to come get you. Do you have a phone? >> I'm going to go get it. >> It is not in here. In my purse. >> Your phone is not in your purse? >> So, I thought she grabbed it. It is not. >> They can't find her phone. >> She just had it in her hand. >> That wasn't her. >> Oh, it wasn't hers? >> I told her to keep She kept reaching in her purse. Told told her to quit reaching in her >> So >> somebody's called your mom. >> Right there. Right there. Right there. >> Oh god, there it is. >> At the jail, the pattern held. She declined the breath test, asked for an attorney, and remained combative sparring with a female officer she deemed disrespectful, [music] circling back again and again to her status as a local and a taxpayer. As if that were a shield the law recognized. Somewhere in [music] it came a genuinely sad note. A mention of her 3-year-old, who was, at least, safe at home in her husband's care, and never anywhere near the danger of that night. When the paperwork [music] was tallied, the charges reflected everything the evening had become: driving while intoxicated, a first offense, second-degree [music] battery on an officer, resisting arrest, refusal to submit to the breath test, [music] and the original headlight violation that started it all. Her bond was set at $5,000. And as with every case, >> [music] >> the presumption of innocence applies none of it stands proven until a court says so. Strip it down, and the story is almost entirely about choices made after the stop, >> [music] >> not before it. A flickering headlight and a whiff of alcohol were a small problem with a small solution. >> [music] >> What turned a routine night into a felony wasn't the drinking alone, it was the decision. [music] Offered a reset and refusing it to fight instead of comply. Being a local, paying your taxes, disliking the police, >> [music] >> none of it alters the arithmetic. The badge doesn't bend to attitude. It only records it. >> [music] [music] >> Hey.