Tulsa World: Attorney defends trooper's actions during scuffle with paramedic

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Attorney defends trooper's actions during scuffle with paramedic

Attorney Gary James speaks to media during an afternoon press conference in downtown Oklahoma City Monday. James defended embattled OHP Trooper Daniel Martin(shown in enlarged photo in background, right) who is seen on video tape placing his hands around the throat of a paramedic after Martin stopped the ambulance for failure to yield near Paden in May. (JIM BECKEL/ The Oklahoman)

By MANNY GAMALLO World Staff Writer
Published: 6/15/2009 3:38 PM
Last Modified: 6/15/2009 6:59 PM

OKLAHOMA CITY – The attorney for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper at the center of a May 24 scuffle with a Creek Nation paramedic on Monday laid the blame entirely on the paramedic.

Attorney Gary James said paramedic Maurice White Jr. repeatedly interfered with a traffic stop Trooper Daniel Martin had done on a Creek Nation ambulance in Paden for allegedly failing to yield to his cruiser.

The ambulance, which was taking a woman to a hospital in Prague but did not have its lights or siren on, was being driven by Paul Franks.

Martin attempted to pull over the vehicle for failure to yield and also after the trooper had perceived that the ambulance driver had given him an obscene finger gesture.

James said Martin had tried to talk to the driver about the failure to yield and the finger gesture but White kept interfering between the trooper and Franks, despite repeated requests by the trooper for White to get back into the ambulance.

It was after those repeated requests that Martin attempted to arrest White and a scuffle broke out as the paramedic attempted to resist arrest, James said.

A second scuffle broke out on the side of the ambulance as the trooper tried to arrest Martin again. Right or wrong, James said, the trooper had the authority to arrest someone. White didn’t have the right to fight the trooper back, he said.

James also released photos showing bruises and welts on the trooper’s arms. The photos were taken four days after the incident, James said.

“A person who’ll

fight an officer is a danger to the community,” James said, adding that White is a “danger to the community.”

He also urged reporters at a news conference to check into White’s background, noting that he had worked for the Muskogee and Mayes County EMS systems.

Martin has been on paid administrative leave since June 1.

He has undergone repeated threats, such as drive-by shootings, and people attempting to hack into his e-mail account since the May 24 incident, a video of which was recorded on a cell phone and posted on the Internet.

It was because of those incidents that he requested to be put on administrative leave, James said.

The OHP late last week also released Martin's patrol car's dash-cam video, showing parts of the May 24 incident.

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By MANNY GAMALLO World Staff Writer

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Reader comments for this story have been moved to the most updated version of the story, now under the headline "Video: Lawyer: Trooper is not to blame," which was published on 6/16/2009. So far, 337 comments have been made.