As the defendant jumps out of the car my partner and I approach him and immediately slap the cuffs on him. Now we already know the defendant has a warrant and failed to appear in court but he insists that he just appeared and everything had been taken care of. Being the nice guy that I am, I sit him on the curb and listen patiently to his story. He tells that his paperwork is in the house and wants to get it for us. He insists that he went to court. “No, send your Father in”, I tell him. “He won’t be able to find it. I know where it is and he doesn’t.”, he says. We go back and forth for a few minutes and I finally lose my patience and tell him to get up. “You’re going to jail”.I know he didn’t go and I’m not about to let him in the house.

I lift the defendant off the ground and escort him to the car. Once inside, he starts complaining that he needs to use the bathroom and is nearly begging me to let him go back into his house to use the restroom. I’m starting to get suspicious. There are really only two reasons why someone goes to great links to get out of handcuffs. One is so they can fight and run and the other is their hiding something and they want to get rid of it. My instincts and his body language tell me that he has drugs on him. He’s not getting out of these cuffs.

A few minutes into the drive he starts to close his legs really tight and is almost in tears. “I really need to use the restroom or I’m gonna pee my pants”, he tells us. My partner alerts me that he needs gas and suggests that we let him use the bathroom at the gas station. Okay, why not. As I’m walk him to the restroom I remind him that any attempts to fight or escape will result in an immediate taser deployment (I love my taser). He agrees but what he doesn’t realize is that I’m gonna accompany him to the restroom. Once inside I remove the cuffs and stand behind him and warn him not to even sneeze. “Pee”, I tell him. Nothing. “Stage fright?”. “I can’t pee with you standing behind me”, he says. On go the cuffs. “You can pee at the jail”, I respond.

Oddly enough he stops complaining about need to relieve himself. When we arrive at the jail I ask him if he has any dope on him. I already know he does, his body language says it all. He finally admits to holding Meth. I remove it and throw it away, giving him a major break. It’s a felony to bring drugs or alcohol into a jail and San Benito County Jail is famous for jamming people up for it. Not sure why I did it, this guy’s has been a jerk since we arrested him. I guess I just have a soft spot for drug addicts. The booking goes smooth and we go on our way.

Three days later I learn that the defendant called one of our offices and complained about how he was treated. You must be kidding me. I cut this guy a major break and he complains about me. I never get complaints and believe me there have been times that I should have. Not this time, though. Anyway, last week my partner calls me laughing. He tell me that this guy rebailed through us and didn’t go to court again. Unfortunately for me I can’t be there when he arrests him. I beg him to leave any drugs on him but I would be suprised if he makes that mistake again. A couple hours later my partner calls me and tells me that he had the defendant with him and he was holding quite a bit more dope then last time. He left if in his pocket even though he was begging my partner to throw it out. All my partner says to him is “Karma”. Yes, the jail charged him with bringing drugs into a jail and based on this guys past history, he’ll do some serious jail time. I bet we don’t see him again.

I thought I would share a funny story with you about my first real experience with pepper spray. For those who don’t know about pepper spay, we use it for what’s called pain compliance. In other words, if you don’t do what I tell you to do, your face is going to feel a shit load of pain. Unlike mace, which burns your skin, pepper spray effects the mucus membranes; eyes, mouth, nose. Pepper spray is made from the extract of hot peppers so it’s non-toxic and relatively safe.

It causes immediate closing of the eyes, difficulty breathing, runny nose, and coughing. The duration of its effects depend on the strength of the spray but the average full effect lasts around thirty to forty-five minutes, with diminished effects lasting for hours. With that said, it is one of the most painful things I have ever experienced. I remember when I got my first can of spray. I decided to “try it out” so I sprayed a bit in my hands and rubbed in on my cheeks. I was underwhelmed. I only felt a little bit of burning similar to what you feel when you get hot pepper sauce on you lips. It was no big deal so my fear of pepper spray was gone. Ha!

Fast forward a few months later when another investigator and I were attempting to arrest a three striker meth addict at a trailer park called Sleepy Hallow. Anyone who knows San Jose, knows this trailer park. It’s on Monterey Road in South San Jose and has been there as far back as I can remember. It’s so bad even the trailer trash are afraid to park their double wides here.

As we approached our defendant we noticed he was carrying a 2 or 3 month old yellow Labrador Retriever. We yelled at him to “drop the puppy” (just kidding) and attempted to arrest him.  He immediately pulled away from my partner who, for whatever reason, decided to spray this guy in the face. Well, unfortunately for me, I was standing to the right of my partner about 2 feet from the defendant. When the spray hit him it bounced off and hit me square in the eyes and mouth.

I was not expecting what happened next. My eyes immediately swelled shut and I felt the most intense pain I have ever experienced. As my eyes we closing shut I saw the defendant take of running with my partner following. I knew I couldn’t leave him alone, I have to deal with the pain and try to keep up with them. As I took of running I ran right through another cloud of pepper spray. This time I got a mouth and nose full and the pain was worsening. I yelled to my partner that I could not see so he was smart enough to yell “over here, over here”.

When we finally caught up with the defendant my eyes were now completely closed and an enormous amount of snot was coming from my nose. So much so that it looked like my head was leaking fluid. It was a stream of snot. Everything hurt, my eyes, my mouth and my nose. I was having trouble breathing and I was starting to panic. To make matters worse this guy wasn’t going to give up without a fight. We were on the ground trying to get hand cuffs on him when my partner started yelling “he’s trying to get my gun, he’s trying to get my gun”.

During the 3 or 4 minute fight, I could no longer catch my breath and I was getting scared. I couldn’t see anything and the pain was becoming almost too much to handle. I had to keep prying my eyes open with my fingers so I could see what was going on. So I could see just enough to get this guy in cuffs. When we finally got him under control I had to stand under a garden hose for 10 minutes to try and ease the pain. Every time I turned it off the pain came back.

Finally, after about an hour or so I started to feel normal again. It wasn’t until that evening when I took a shower did the pain return. It seems that pepper spray is reactivated when exposed to warm water. When I was assigned a taser I tossed my pepper spray in the trash, never to be used again (except on dogs). I would rather be tased then relive the pain I experienced that day.