Crime & Courts

Sitka settles with young man repeatedly hit with stun gun in jail

SITKA — The city of Sitka has agreed to pay $350,000 to resolve a complaint threatening a lawsuit over the 2014 arrest of a man who was repeatedly shocked with a stun gun in the city jail.

The Daily Sitka Sentinel reports that the city's insurance company will pay Franklin Hoogendorn in connection to the September 2014 incident.

Hoogendorn's attorneys had not filed a lawsuit, but had issued a draft complaint threatening litigation.

The claim for damages was in connection to Hoogendorn's arrest and the subsequent posting of a video online that shows Sitka police officers wrestling with the then 18-year-old as they attempted to have him change into jail clothing. In the course of the struggle, one officer can be seen using a stun gun on Hoogendorn, who had been arrested on alcohol-related charges.

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