Harwood Halloween festivities for about twenty Clark I party-goers ended abruptly Sunday morning with the arrival of four police officers who promptly arrested three individuals for three unrelated incidents, pepper spraying and repeatedly tazing a Pomona student in the process.

At 1:59 am, a Pomona sophomore who spoke to The Student Life on the condition of anonymity called campus safety from his dorm room, alleging that he had been struck by a man wearing a #27 Titan jersey at a party in a Clark I courtyard.

Four minutes later, several campus safety officers arrived at the scene and apprehended the subject, identified as Mike Dyson, who does not attend the Claremont Colleges.

The sophomore who made the original complaint said that he was just "making the rounds [and] talking to people I didn’t know," when he was introduced to Dyson. The sophomore alleged that after nearly zero verbal communication between the two men, Dyson asked the sophomore to follow him away from the party. The sophomore followed and, after a period of silence, he asked Dyson who #27 for the Titans was. The sophomore said that he turned and began to walk away from Dyson after Dyson looked at him "really weirdly." At that point, Dyson allegedly struck the sophomore in the back of the head with a closed fist.

"I was really confused and as I was walking away I saw another guy, [who] I think was one of his friends. I said ‘What was that all about?’ [to which] he said ‘You better get the fuck out of here, granny," the sophomore (who was dressed in a granny costume) said. After that, the sophomore went back to his South Campus dorm room to phone campus safety.

Other partygoers characterized the sophomore as acting aggressively toward Dyson at the party, a charge that the sophomore vehemently denies.

"The fact that I didn’t punch the guy back and I walked away supports the idea that I wasn’t...an aggressor. I think there was some confusion...maybe some things were said, but not by me," said the sophomore.

Within one minute of arriving to investigate the original complaint, campus safety officers identified another off campus male in possession of a knife with a blade longer than two and a half inches, which is a crime on college campuses in California. After originally refusing to show identification, the second suspect was identified as Leandro Quiros.

Apparently Quiros and Dyson knew each other and arrived at the party together. Several students at the party vouched for Dyson and Quiros, informing campus safety that they were on campus as invited guests.

By all accounts, Quiros was not threatening anyone with the knife; however, the knife clip was visible on his person, which caught the attention of campus safety. According to eyewitnesses, a campus safety officer shined a flashlight on Quiros’ pants and, seeing the knife clip, told him to "drop the weapon."

Campus safety called the Claremont Police Department at 2:04 am, one minute after campus safety arrived on the scene, although it is unclear whether the original complaint involved both the battery charge and the weapons possession charge, or just one charge.

When the police did arrive, Dyson and Quiros were handcuffed and arrested for battery and weapons possession, respectively.

The sophomore who made the original battery complaint was escorted to the scene by campus safety around 2:30 am, where he positively identified Dyson as the assailant and confirmed at that point, in writing, that he wanted to press charges.

"A person comes into my home and assaults me," said the sophomore, explaining why he decided to press charges. "I just want this to go away."

Dyson and Quiros were eventually brought to the police station for citation and were then released.

Joe Hartford ’02 was also arrested for obstruction of justice and public intoxication.

Hartford was not involved in the original complaint and was at first just another bystander. He involved himself, however, by leaning against the exterior wall of Clark I, verbally harassing campus safety officers and, later, police officers as they arrived at the scene. According to campus safety reports, Hartford would not cooperate in leaving the area after being asked to leave repeatedly.

Hartford told TSL that he did not know why the officers were there and that he was simply disturbed by what he characterized as their disruptive presence.

"I had been drinking and the cops showed up....Then I look over and see them and...I notice there’s two people with handcuffs [on]...so I just leaned up against the [Clark I] wall," said Hartford. "Then they tell me to go home and I say ‘No. I am home.’ And then they shined a laser on me."

According to Lieutenant Stan Van Horn, speaking on behalf of the Claremont Police Department, Hartford was screaming at campus safety officers and at the police. When a police officer told him to leave the scene, Hartford allegedly walked toward the officer "with his arms extended." The officer responded by unholstering his M-26 tazer, which has a laser sight, and aiming it at Hartford.

According to Van Horn, Hartford then said, "Oh a laser. Go ahead and shoot me." The officer then corrected him by saying "It’s a tazer" and explaining that if Hartford continued to act aggressively, the officer would shoot him.

Hartford said that all he said was "Would you like some candy?" (Hartford’s pockets were filled with candy from a previous Halloween party he had attended).

At this point, two other officers attempted to physically bring Hartford to the ground, but could not. The officer with the tazer then reholstered his tazer and joined the other officers in the physical struggle with Hartford. According to eyewitnesses, Hartford did not attempt to physically harm the officers, but he did resist their attempts to control him.

After the three officers failed to subdue Hartford, who, according to Van Horn "had a crazed look in his eyes," they released him and the officer with the tazer shot Hartford, sending two five-second bursts of high voltage electricity through Hartford’s body.

"I immediately felt the shock and I immediately tensed up and I immediately grabbed for whatever was in me and tried [to] pull it out," said Hartford.

"The situation is this: you’ve got a guy who is uncooperative and is not doing what you ask him to do," said Van Horn. "If you feel [the situation] is going to be unsafe, you back off and use tazers or pepper spray...[because] neither one has a lasting physical effect. It’s not like breaking an arm or destroying tissue." Van Horn explained that the physical separation that tazing provides ultimately defuses the situation by placing both the officers and the suspect in a position where neither one can seriously hurt the other.

"It’s pain compliance, pure and simple," he said.

As Hartford was being tazed, he managed to rip the barbed probes, which had burrowed into his flesh, out of his body. According to Van Horn, Hartford then continued "advancing," while shouting "Do it again!"

According to Hartford, he yelled, "I can take that, I’m an athlete."

Other officers and bystanders urged Hartford to comply with the officer with the tazer. Hartford would not and he was shot a second time in the chest. Two more five second jolts were administered.

Again, Hartford ripped the probes out of his chest and, according to Van Horn, shouted "More! More!" In Hartford’s own account of events, by contrast, he yelled "I’ve had enough!"

In any event, Hartford said that he turned his back to the officers and placed his hands on the wall, a claim that Van Horn does not dispute. At that point, Hartford was shot once more, in the back, and two more bursts of electricity were sents through him.

The officer then pepper sprayed Hartford, who then submitted to arrest.

"I’ve been maced before. I hope none of you ever have to taste mace. It tastes like ass," Hartford yelled, mistaking the pepper spray for mace.

Hartford was handcuffed, placed in the back of a squad car and driven to Pomona Valley Hospital, where he says he was strapped to a gurney as a doctor removed the probes from his back with pliers. He was then transported to jail, where he was booked, and stayed overnight. He was released the next morning. He walked back to campus.

"[A tazer] is five seconds of incredible pain," Van Horn said. "I was tazed once in training [and] basically what it did to me is curl me up like a little baby."

"Normally, the first time you taze someone, they get the message and they stop what they are doing," he said.

The Claremont Police Department’s use of force policy states that, "The tazer or stun bag shotgun may be used when lethal force does not appear to be justifiable and/or necessary attempts to control the suspect by conventional tactics of verbalization, firm grip control, pain compliance holds and/or control holds have been, or will likely be, ineffective and/or there is a reasonable expectation that it will be unsafe for officers to approach within contact range of the suspect."

Van Horn said that the officers were well within the boundaries of the department’s use of force policy.

Eyewitnesses disagreed. Adam Butscheck ’03, who witnessed the tazing, was adamant that Hartford never physically threatened the officers, although he was verbally abusive. "They shot him in the back with a tazer when he had his hands against the wall," said Butscheck. "Absolutely it was excessive force. Little blue sparks were flying from the probes when they hit him. They shocked him with 40,000 volts of electricity at least four times and then they pepper sprayed him, all because they didn’t like what he was saying."

Mike Tonkinson, the on-call RA, arrived on the scene near the end of Hartford’s ordeal with the police. He said he could see an officer pointing a tazer gun at Hartford’s back and that he did not witness any physical aggression on the part of Hartford, although he could not confirm that his hands were on the wall.

Frank Bedoya, the on-call Dean, arrived after the tazing had concluded. "By the time I arrived on the scene, Joe had already been arrested and placed in the car," he said. "I did not witness Joe’s behavior and that’s what’s so difficult [but] when I heard he’d been tazed I was taken by surprise."

"I knew nothing about tazer guns prior to Saturday night," Bedoya said. "There are still a lot of unanswered questions."

When asked what the college’s response was going to be, Bedoya replied that although "I would like to have a dialogue with [the police] to try to find out what it was that night that led to what I can only call excessive force against Joe."

Bedoya made clear that he saw his primary role that night as calming the other bystanders, many of whom were very agitated. "I was trying to defuse a very angry mob," Bedoya said.

"We cannot protect our students against the law," Bedoya added.

Van Horn stated that it is not unusual for officers to carry tazers while on duty. "There are four or six tazers in the field at any given time," he said. He speculated that across entire department, tazers are used in the line of duty "six to ten times a year."

When asked why so many squad cars were dispatched to the scene, Van Horn replied that "It’s a party at the colleges," and that when campus safety contacts them, "we try and send as many officers as possible."

Hartford said that his court date is set for November 26 and that he will probably retain a lawyer. His mother is in town to help him with the case.