of places on the internet, if you look up stun guns. It's
completely false as to what these things do as far as incapacitation rates. These are good devices to
keep somebody at bay at best. Reporter: Is it possible, even though it may not have produced the desired reaction of incapacitation,
is it possible to produce the very same marks? Let's take a look, by the way, on the autopsy photo...
there you see, 3.5 cm apart, is it possible to produce those marks with what you have in your hand
there, Steven?
ST: I can't do it and I've never been able to replicate it on a person in my 7 years with the company.
Neither has anybody in our company been able to replicate those
Reporter: Are you telling me that your taser has never left a mark on any human being or any animal?
ST: It certainly leaves a mark in some cases like a reddish mark. I'm looking at my arm right now and
I've got little red spots here, all over the place - cause the electricity's dancing all over the place.
I'm not able to keep it in one spot. If I were to keep it in one spot, I might be able to get those two
3.5 cm type width spots but what's key here is even if I'm a 30 pound person, I'm going to get
instinctually away from this pain. If you were to have it, especially in two spots to be perfectly still, I
just don't know how....
Reporter: You're not being restrained and you don't have duct tape across your mouth but, Steven,
I'm afraid we're out of time. I want to thank you so much for coming here today and showing us how
it works, we appreciate it. Steven Tuttle of Taser International.
PART 2 - AFTER VIEWING LOU'S PRESENTATION
R: ...heard that story we had on during the break. Do you buy the theory? Does it hold water?
ST:I don't know. It's bewildering to us as a company. We were approached by Lou Smit in the
very
beginning of the investigation. We provided a list of people who had the actual AIR TASER in
Colorado. We've also provided them a lot of information...
MISSING SECTION!!!!!!!
R: ...distinctive marks that appear to be the same spread. I think you have an AIR TASER with
you
right now and there are in fact - - can you hold it up? - there are two electrodes in the end,
right?
ST: There are two electrodes right here what they are talking about is actually leaving marks
here
and they are about 3 1/2 cm apart and they're fairly similar in width if you were to measure
those
two.
R: Now here's the big question - Can someone hold that to somebody without them flinching
or
moving back?
ST: That's the crux of the bewilderment from our company's perspective. I'm going to go
ahead and
do this on my arm. I don't like doing this at all but
R: I'm sure you don't
ST: I want to try to hold it there as long as I can. Now this would be simulating anybody's
reaction.
(He grimaced and held the stun gun to his arm, he did NOT cry out or make any noise until he
pulled
the stun gun away.)
UH! That is exceedingly painful to say the least, it's something instinctually I want to get
away from
R: OK, but you're a grown man, Let's take ourselves to the crime scene. This is a little girl who
was
asleep, she's 6 years old, what's to say a grown man can't hold her down and just simply hold
that to
her?
ST: Well, that could be done, but what we're seeing is a mark that's not moving and as you
saw my
arm flailing about... even if someone is heavier,holding that down, that person is going to
wake up
immediately and instinctively want to get away from the pain.
R: What about the the notion of incapacitating someone? Is this, obviously when you're being
shocked there, you're out of it for that moment, but when you took it away, you were fine.
Will it
knock somebody out?
ST: That is very, very crucial to the issue here, it will not knock someone out, it will not render
them
mute. They will kick and scream. I did my best to not scream into the microphone here
because it
was very uncomfortable.
R: Once you took it away, though, you were fine?
ST: ... once you stop it. And it's very loud when it's in the air. It does go much more silent as
Lou
Smit pointed out with the pillow. It does go more silent when you stick it in the skin.
However, the
minute that person breaks contact you do get that loud arcing sound. And again, it just
simply would
not cause incapacitation
R: Mr. Tuttle, I can certainly understand why a company would not want their name or
product
associated with a crime in this case. Do you see any reasonable possibility that it COULD
have been a
TASER and that a child that young COULD have been incapacitated?
ST: It could have been ours and I certainly, we want to work with the investigators, we have
from
the very beginning. Um, I don't know. It's bewildering to see if this was ours. The
measurements are
close. They're not exact, but I don't know. That's what's stupifying - is you've got two
separate
marks that are crystally clear, perfect, without any movement shown on the suspect's, oh,
I'm sorry,
on JonBenét. I just don't understand that, how that can be there. (Showing his arm) I don't
have the
marks here, they're all over the place. I'm not sure if you can see... from me moving, they've
gone
everywhere. Ah,
R: Certainly not as deep as what we saw there. You mentioned... we're quickly running out of
time...
you mentioned that you provided list of those who had been sold. Is this something you have
to
register to buy?
ST: Yes We do require as a company that if a person purchases an AIR TASER, we are going to
know
who that person is. They are registered in a data base and if it's used in the TASER mode,
which
would incapacitate somebody, it's going to emit little confetti tags that would match back to
the
owner. In this case the taser was not used so we don't have these confetti tags. But we do
have
serial numbers. If they find one, we could match that up to who it was sold to.
R: Steven Tuttle, we do appreciate you spending the time with us today.
ST: Thank you . ""
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