A Petaluma man was feeling somewhat vindicated Thursday after a jury deadlocked on a case where he was shot with a Taser for not allowing police to come inside his house after an accidental 911 call.
Nearly two years ago, Sean Lent, 25, was charged with resisting arrest after being shocked twice with the stun gun when two Petaluma police officers charged into his family home.
After months in court, the misdemeanor case went to trial last week. Following several days of testimony and more than a full day of deliberations, the jury returned late Wednesday deadlocked.
Seven jurors believed Lent should be acquitted, Lent's attorney, Andy Martinez said. Five thought he should be convicted.
District Attorney's Office spokesman Bill Brockley said prosecutors will review the evidence and the jury split before deciding whether to seek a second trial. The next hearing is March 22.
The case stemmed from the accidental 911 call placed from Lent's parents' home on Easter Sunday 2008. An emergency call had been made from the house earlier in the day when Lent's father fell ill. A few hours later, a visiting relative mistakenly pressed redial on the phone and hung up.
When police dispatchers called back, Lent said it was an accident and hung up again, both sides agree.
But two officers who went to the home to check the welfare of the home's occupants weren't told about the accidental redial or the earlier 911 medical call, Martinez said. But they were told of a disturbance call from the same home more than two weeks prior.
A Superior Court judge ruled in 2009 that the resisting arrest charge was unjustified and dismissed the case, but prosecutors appealed to a local appellate panel. There, three judges said because Lent tried to block officers' view into the house the case could go forward.
"I would definitely say it's a waste of time," Martinez said. "This took three or four full court days, then deliberations, during a time there are real resource problems. My client feels vindicated because most of jurors believed he had a right to protect his own home."
He said jurors told him they didn't like his client's demeanor toward police, but neither did they like the main officer's behavior.
"In the officer's 15 seconds at the front door, my client answered all his questions, but he just didn't like his attitude," Martinez said.
The primary officer, Patrick Gerke, testified Lent was belligerent and his body language hostile. But the backup officer testified he saw no aggressive behavior, Martinez said.
When Lent tried to close the door, officers pushed their way inside and fought to handcuff the Menlo College football player. In the scuffle, he was Tasered twice.
"One of the real problems here was a lack of communication between dispatch and the officers," Martinez said. "The officer went thinking this was a domestic violence call. He talked about how dangerous these calls are. That's the attitude he went in with, that my guy was doing something wrong."
Jurors were able to hear a recording of the encounter because Gerke had an audio recording device on his uniform.
You can reach Staff Writer Lori A. Carter at 762-7297 or at lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com.
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