Did a Shawnee police officer hold woman 'hostage' to make her husband comply? What Public Eye found

In late June, police were called to a Shawnee home to help investigate an animal control complaint. The homeowners, Clifford and Jennifer Gaskill, already had talked with city officials about their situation and believed they did nothing wrong.

The Shawnee police officers wanted to write a municipal citation related to the Gaskill's dog-sitting business, but Clifford refused to show police his ID. To cool off after the tense argument, Clifford said he walked back into his home, leaving officer, Jacob Blazer, outside with Jennifer, who had been casually standing outside looking on while her husband spoke with the officers.

Less than a minute later, Jennifer was in handcuffs. Luckily for the Gaskills, the whole interaction was caught on the their home security cameras. In reviewing that footage and comparing it to a police report from the incident, Public Eye found some deeper concerns, which we'll get to.

The problem: Detaining one person to get another to comply

After Clifford walked inside, Jennifer Gaskill told Blazer her ID was inside the house so she'd have to go back inside to get it. Instead of letting her retrieve it, Blazer blocked her from going inside.

"He said, 'You're not going inside. Your husband needs to come out and present his ID or you're going to jail,'" Jennifer recalled.

She stood idly next to Blazer with her arms crossed. After about a minute, Blazer can be seen shrugging his shoulders before grabbing Jennifer's wrists, putting her in handcuffs and walking her back to his car.

The city of Shawnee had not complied with Public Eye's request for a police report and body camera footage as of publication, but the Gaskills were able to obtain them through a separate request. While there was video from one officer's perspective, the city told the Gaskills there was no video from Blazer's body camera so Public Eye could not independently verify what was said before Jennifer was detained.

As Jennifer sat in the back of a police car, Clifford finally relented and gave police his ID so they would write the citations and release his wife. After the incident, he spoke with Public Eye, complaining that police took his wife "hostage" for about 20 minutes in order to get his driver's license.

"That was me that should have been cuffed. That was me that should have been put in a patrol car, and that was me that should have gone through that experience," Clifford told Public Eye. "Not her, who was doing everything she could to cooperate with them."

What we found: Surveillance video does not match police officer's report

As we reviewed the police report looking for that justification, we found another troubling problem.

In his narrative of the incident, Blazer wrote that he detained Jennifer after she "attempted to push past me again" to go inside the house.

But video from two surveillance cameras shows something different. Blazer's version of events never happened; she never tried to push past him. It's hard to believe any reasonable person watching the video would say she was anything but compliant and reasonable.

After reading Blazer's report, Clifford was livid. Although he'd seen the surveillance footage before, he immediately watched it again.

"I was trying to figure out how this cop had the nerve to say that she more or less assaulted him by trying to push him out of the way, when she couldn't have been any less threatening no matter what she did aside from getting on the ground and going into the fetal position," Clifford said.

When can cops detain you?

Police have broad powers to detain individuals. Under what is known as a "Terry" detention in reference to a 1968 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Terry v. Ohio, police have the authority to detain people during an investigation, which could include the use of handcuffs. Although it's different from an actual arrest, the line between detention and arrest is thin, blurred and fact-intensive, said Andrea Worden, a Norman attorney who Public Eye asked to independently analyze the situation.

More: Public Eye investigates issues that impact you. This is what we've found so far

"The fact that (Jennifer) wasn’t suspected of any criminal activity makes it harder to justify any kind of detention, let alone being cuffed and put in the back of a police car," Worden said. "That kind of detention is usually reserved for persons suspected of criminal activity or those who reasonably pose a risk of harm to others."

Even if Jennifer Gaskill's brief detention didn't break any laws, the interaction raises questions about the appropriate use of police powers and the justification Blazer used to put her in handcuffs.

The fallout: Defending their honor

The Gaskills ultimately decided not to fight the animal control citations, but Jennifer filed complaints with the city, county and attorney general's office alleging she was illegally detained. Shawnee police Capt. John Goss reviewed their complaint and wrote a formal letter to the Gaskills, saying that he found no policy violations.

They also reached out to us. Public Eye inquired to Shawnee police about the incident, and specifically asked to speak with the police chief about why Blazer's statements didn't match the video record. A police spokeswoman said that because the Gaskills were considering legal action, the department would not comment.

Worden said that people sometimes perceive a situation differently or their memories get fuzzy over time, but it's still an officer's responsibility to get things right.

"Law enforcement officers aren’t supposed to lie on their reports," she said. "But I don’t think anyone would be surprised to hear that it’s common to find discrepancies between written reports and the video footage of the same incident."

Although they received only a municipal code violation and neither was charged with a crime, the Gaskills have serious concerns about how the incident will affect the rest of their lives. The couple want to adopt a child, Jennifer has a good job and neither want this interaction to cause any future trouble.

"My biggest concern is now there is a record that I've been aggressive towards a police officer," Jennifer told Public Eye. "And how is that going to impact me down the line? I mean, I work for my church and I work for the state, so if the wrong person sees that, now I have a record of being aggressive."

The consequences here were relatively small compared to other high-profile examples of police behavior. No one went to jail, no one got beat up, but Clifford said he's afraid of what might happen to someone else in a similar situation.

In this case, we hope the Shawnee Police Department will investigate why the officer's report did not match the video and take appropriate action.

Have a problem? Let Public Eye help. Email us at publiceye@oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Shawnee Oklahoma woman says police illegally detained her