HYDE PARK, Vt.—Three people were arrested, two were stunned with Tasers and a sheriff's deputy was injured early Friday when police responding to noise complaints from a Valentine's Day party clashed with partygoers.
People at the party told WCAX-TV that responding officers used excessive force, but Lamoille County Sheriff Roger Marcoux said the Taser victims were warned repeatedly and that officers acted appropriately, as far as he knew.
More than 50 people -- some of them students at Johnson State College -- were on hand when deputies from the Lamoille County Sheriff's Department were called to the home on Noyes Farm Road for a noise complaint. When they were called back a second time because of more complaints from neighbors, they were joined by Vermont State Police and officers from Morristown, Stowe and Hardwick, according to Marcoux.
Six or seven officers responded the second time, he said.
An altercation broke out in which Deputy James Dybala was knocked to the floor and injured a leg, according to Marcoux. Dybala was treated and released at Copley Hospital.
Gregory J. Cwynar, 34, one of the people stunned with a Taser, was charged with disorderly conduct, assault on a police officer and resisting arrest.
Evan C. Pestone and Patrick C. Kantlehner, whose ages and hometowns were unavailable, were each charged with disorderly conduct.
Pestone, who could not be reached for comment Friday, told WCAX that he was trying to cooperate but couldn't because he was stunned with a Taser four times.
"The whole time I was trying to cooperate, get people out of the house. Before I knew it, I was on the ground being tased. All I could feel was myself being tased, vibrating, they tell me to stop resisting, I can hear them tell me stop resisting, but all I can do is shake like this because I am being tased."
Kantlehner said he was sprayed with pepper spray.
"They threw me to the ground, pushed me in the face, put my hands behind my back like this, and I said `Cuff me if you want too, cuff me, cuff me,' and they kept telling me I was resisting arrest," he told the station.
The unidentified officer who deployed the Taser was with the Morristown Police Department, according to Marcoux. Morristown Police Chief Richard Keith didn't immediately return a call seeking comment Friday.
Marcoux said partygoers complained to the news media but that no one filed a complaint.
"I don't think these guys are murderers are anything like that, but they have made complaints to the media that there was excessive force used.
"I'll talk to the agency heads to see what the individual officers say. But we've yet to receive a sworn complaint. If warranted, I'd take it to another agency for investigation if necessary," Marcoux said.
