Landlord gets $50K after deputies use Taser in false arrest

By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A jury has awarded $50,000 to a northern Virginia landlord who was shot three times with a stun gun when sheriff’s deputies wrongly arrested him following a tenant’s complaint. Matthew Souter of The Plains was arrested at his home in 2018 after a tenant in his 19th-century farmhouse claimed he violated a protective order by shutting off her utilities. But the protective order only barred Souter from committing acts of violence against the tenant. A federal judge in Alexandria ruled the arrest was invalid and Souter had a legal right to resist. The judge said any force used on a wrongful arrest is excessive. A jury on Thursday decided $50,000 was the appropriate amount of damages.