Todd Lappegaard, ex-cop who Tasered Rolando Ruiz, wants his job back
The video released in November is pretty shocking. Rolando Ruiz can be seen standing still, with hands on the hood of a Minneapolis Police Department cruiser, when Todd Lappegaard stands behind him and Tasers him in the neck. In a flash, Ruiz can be seen falling to the ground.
Laapegaard, at the time a 17-year MPD veteran, was arresting Ruiz outside Second Precinct headquarters on 19th Avenue NE. He was fired on Jan. 25, after the video spread on the Internet and local TV news outlets, police Chief Tim Dolan called in the FBI for an investigation, and a multimillion dollar lawsuit was filed against Lappegaard and the city.
But Lappegaard wants his job back, and he's going public with his side of the story.
Ruiz and three other police officers had an argument earlier that night, and Ruiz returned to the Second Precinct and hurled some landscaping blocks at an officer's personal car parked in the precinct lot.Lappegaard, who had just pulled into the lot, heard the blocks hitting the car and drove back to the street to stop Ruiz as he walked away. The video starts just after Lappegaard intercepted Ruiz.
Lappegaard says the panel that investigated the incident didn't speak to all the officers on the scene that night, and that the investigation was rigged against him as punishment for "unflattering reports" he had made about the department in the past.
An MPD spokesman told the Strib the department had no comment on Lappegaard's statements.
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