UPDATED: LawDog found not guilty
A judge found a retired Wichita County sheriff's lieutenant accused of using excessive force not guilty on Tuesday after a battle of expert testimony.
The outcome of the nonjury trial ended over two years of waiting for Ian Hugh McMurtrie, 55. He was charged with official oppression, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
The charges involved an incident on March 13, 2020, when an man scuffled with police and security personnel at United Regional Health Care, was shot with a Taser and taken to the Wichita County Jail, which at the time was located in the courthouse.
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A Taser barb had been left in the inmate's shoulder. He pulled it out while waiting in a holding cell.
When it was discovered the man possessed the barb and a piece of gauze that could be used as weapons, detention officers fired pepper balls into his cell.
Pepper balls are similar to paintballs but filled with a substance similar to tear gas. After the man went to the floor, several jailers, including McMurtrie, entered the cell to secure the inmate.
Video played at the hearing showed McMurtrie delivering elbow blows to the inmate, and prosecutors claimed the deputy pushed the man's head against the concrete floor and "fish hooked" him — that is, pushed fingers into his nostrils and jerked his head back.
Blood was seen on the floor, and the man was taken to the hospital for treatment later that morning.
Andrew Speegle, a jail lieutenant, reviewed the incident and testified McMurtrie was heard telling the inmate, "I'll pull your spine out through your nose and beat you to death with it."
Speegle said he believed McMurtrie used excessive force. The prosecution also introduced a former head of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement who agreed the treatment of the inmate was excessive.
Defense attorney Robert Estrada presented correctional specialists, a doctor and a paramedic who all testified they did not think McMurtrie's use of force was excessive.
Senior District Judge Bob Brotherton said given the limitations of what he could see in the video, he concluded McMurtrie was not guilty.
McMurtrie, an author and blogger of The Law Dog Files, raised over $43,000 for his defense with help of his literary community. The money went to fees for the experts to testify and for legal expenses.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: LawDog found not guilty in excessive force case
