A New Sharon woman was subdued with a Taser in her Lane Road driveway Wednesday after failing to stop for a Franklin County sheriff’s deputy and then acting “suspiciously,” the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday.
Carol Murphy, 71, was arrested and charged with violation of condition of release, refusing to stop for a police officer and refusing to sign a summons, all class E misdemeanor charges. Murphy previously had been convicted on several animal cruelty charges, but Lt. David Rackliffe said Wednesday’s incident was unrelated to those charges.
Rackliffe said Deputy Andrew Morgan tried to get Murphy to stop her 1989 Ford F150 pickup truck because a taillight on the truck was out, but when she didn’t stop, despite his lights and siren, he followed her to her home at 248 Lane Road.
In her driveway, Murphy continued “actively resisting by refusing to submit to arrest,” Rackliffe said. After she stepped out of her truck, she “suspiciously” reached back in, getting out of the vehicle with shopping bags.
She began walking toward her home and was refusing to comply with more commands from the deputy, Rackliffe said, so Morgan hit Murphy in the back with a Taser shot, causing her to fall to the ground. Morgan then arrested her, Rackliffe said.
Murphy was seen by emergency medical personnel at the scene, but she refused to be taken to a hospital for further medical inspection, he said. She was taken to the Franklin County Jail, where she was being held in lieu of $250 cash bail late Thursday afternoon.
Murphy is in legal trouble because of a contempt of court charge from 2014 after she allegedly violated two court-ordered lifetime bans on animal possession. In 2005, and again in 2010, Murphy was convicted of animal cruelty after the state seized more than 40 pets from her home that had been living in inhumane conditions.
As recently as this July, Murphy missed an opportunity to reclaim the pets that the state seized from her after her motion challenging the seizure was rejected in Franklin County Superior Court because she failed to appear at the hearing.
Rackliffe said the arrest made Wednesday had no connection to the civil animal convictions and that the Maine State Police have been monitoring the civil orders banning Murphy from owning pets.
Lauren Abbate — 861-9252
Twitter: @Lauren_M_Abbate
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