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msnbc.com News— Great-grandma Kathryn “Sue” Winkfein comes across as an awfully nice, polite woman. So just how did this 4-foot-11 72-year-old wind up getting Tasered by a cop?
“I just lost my temper; I do that maybe twice a year, but that day I just lost it,” Winkfein told TODAY’s Matt Lauer Tuesday about the May 11 incident, when a sheriff’s constable leveled her with a Taser gun during what had started out as a routine traffic stop.
The retired schoolteacher, who holds a master’s degree, appeared alongside her son, Steve Eastland, and her attorney, Thomas Tourtellotte. Winkfein recently received an out-of-court, $40,000 settlement from Travis County, Texas, for her pain and suffering — which has the county’s constables crying foul.
‘Take me to jail!’
Constable Christopher Bieze pulled Winkfein over after he spotted her driving 60 mph through a 45-mph construction zone along a Travis County highway. As his dashboard camera footage shows, when Bieze asked her to sign a ticket guaranteeing her appearance in court, Winkfein snapped back, “Take me to jail. Go on, take me to jail — a 72-year-old woman!”
Bieze then ordered Winkfein out of her pickup truck so he could arrest her. Then things got ugly.
When Winkfein walked toward a busy highway lane, Bieze shoved her back toward the shoulder. She shouted at Bieze, “Give me the f---ing [ticket] and I’ll sign it.” But by now the situation had escalated to the point where Bieze threatened to Taser her. She shot back, “Go ahead, Tase me!”
Winkfein then announced she was getting back in her car. After more shoving and shouting, Bieze made good on his threat — he Tasered Winkfein twice, sending her crumpling to the ground. Her cries of pain were captured on the dash-cam.
Firing back — in court
Hundreds of thousands viewed the Texas Tasing on YouTube, and Winkfein became something of a national celebrity. She also became a complainant in court, filing a $135,000 civil suit against the county for pain, suffering and humiliation.
Not wanting a dragged-out court case that could ring up a huge bill, county officials instead offered Winkfein an out-of-court settlement of $40,000. Two weeks ago, Winkfein accepted it.
Travis County Constable Richard McCain told NBC he believed the settlement was a miscarriage of justice. “When the county wrote a check for $40,000, we rewarded this defendant for bad behavior, which is wrong,” he said.
When Lauer asked Winkfein if she believed she deserved the award, she said, “I don’t know that I have an opinion on that. I’m not a money person, you know what I’m saying? But then Steve and I go, ‘Well, even poor people don’t like being poor.’ But we’re not a greedy type.’ ”
The mother of three, grandmother of 11 and great-grandmother of three admitted she wasn’t proud of her behavior that day, and said that if she had it to do all over again, “I would just not say anything, not react.”
Her son Steve recalled being almost as stunned as if he’d been Tasered himself when he got the call from the county constables. “When [they said] she was ready to be released from the facility, it was surreal,” he said. “I said, ‘Released from what?’ And then they informed me she had been Tased. It’s just so out of character for her.”
Shocking developments
While an internal investigation showed Constable Bieze had done everything by the book, Winkfein’s attorney Tourtellotte told Lauer the fact that Winkfein indeed offered to sign the ticket, albeit with salty language, should have diffused the situation for the constable, and he didn’t need to shock her to the ground.
“He never gave her the opportunity to sign the ticket; he proceeded then to try to arrest her,” Tourtellotte said. “Agreed, she used an expletive the first time, but that should have made it clear she was ready to sign the ticket.”
Lauer asked Winkfein if she told a little white lie when she denied being argumentative or resisting arrest in a TV interview shortly after her arrest.
Winkfein replied that an electric zap has a way of clouding one’s recollections. “I told what I remembered,” she said. “When he Tased me and kept it on and it threw me to the ground, that erased all memory.”
Charges are still pending against Winkfein, though Tourtelotte said he’s “optimistic it won’t happen at this point.”
Winkfein added she’s fine after being Tasered, although she did have to be treated for an infection in one of the two holes left by the Taser.
