Wayne Gerling describes himself as “old school.â€
At 66, the trucker from Hermann, Missouri, is mostly retired, though he still takes a job every now and then. Nine years ago, however, he was still driving regularly, and one night in November, he parked his rig on East Ninth Street near his house, as he often did.
Hermann’s zoning had long allowed the practice on commercial streets, which Ninth was and still is. But unbeknown to Gerling, the town’s police chief at the time, Frank Tennant, had issued a memo to his staff decreeing that such parking was no longer legal. Never mind that the law had not been changed. So one night, Officer Matthew Waite set out to find the owner of the truck parked outside Gerling’s house.
Waite knocked on the door. Gerling, who was with his grandchildren at the time, answered. He told the officer it was his truck. Here’s how court records describe what happened next: “When Gerling refused to produce his license, Waite intruded into his home and grabbed him by the wrist. As Gerling retreated, Waite used a stun gun on him, causing him to fall into a table and sustain injuries to his chest and shoulder. Gerling was taken into custody and issued two citations arising out of this incident.â€
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Last week, nearly a decade after the incident, a federal jury awarded Gerling $150,000 in damages for the injuries he was caused by Waite’s actions and $500,000 in punitive damages. That it took so long for Gerling to achieve some level of justice is a lesson in how difficult it can be to hold police officers accountable when they overstep their bounds.
“It really shouldn’t be this hard. Most people are not going to have the fortitude to fight this for this long,†says Gerling’s attorney, Kevin Carnie Jr., of the Simon Law Firm in ºüÀêÊÓƵ. “Why in the world is a police officer knocking on doors at 9 o’clock at night to find a person to give them a parking ticket? It’s wild.â€
The entire incident is caught on the officer’s body cam. At the time, on the advice given by his former — and now disbarred — attorney, Gerling pleaded guilty to the alleged parking violation. He fought the resisting arrest charge. The city dropped it on the day of trial. Then Gerling sought out Carnie to seek justice in the civil courts.
One of the reasons the case took so long is the concept of “qualified immunity.†In effect, the U.S. Supreme Court has said that police officers cannot be liable for their actions unless a previous court has established some specific action — such as pulling an innocent man out of his house to use a stun gun on him over a parking ticket — is an unconstitutional violation of a defendant’s civil rights.
Gerling originally sued the city, the police chief and Waite. Most of that lawsuit was tossed and appealed to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, with only the unlawful arrest allegation against Waite surviving. The court wouldn’t allow the excessive force claim to go forward because even though he was in his own house, when Gerling pulled his wrist back, he was “fleeing.â€
Even with the jury verdict, the case could still be appealed, and there could be more delays as Carnie will be asking for his attorney’s fees to be paid as well. Waite’s attorney, Ryan Bertels of Jefferson City, declined to comment.
Gerling still lives in Hermann, the small town along the Missouri River about an hour west of ºüÀêÊÓƵ. It was a little weird the past few years being the guy who was taking on city hall, he said. “It’s always in the back of your mind. Could they do this to me again?â€
But he’s glad he stuck to his principles and carried on the fight.
“My feelings were that I hadn’t done nothing wrong,†Gerling said. “I was in my home, and I didn’t feel like they had the right to come in. It didn’t feel right. I was brought up right’s right and wrong’s wrong.â€