Deputies will be disciplined after tasing pallbearer

Five members of the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office will be disciplined after undercover deputies zapped a pallbearer with a Taser at his father’s funeral, Sheriff Sid Causey said Wednesday.

One of the five facing disciplinary action is Chief Deputy Ed McMahon, who was in charge of arresting Gladwyn Taft Russ III when the 42-year-old man attended his father’s funeral on Saturday. Also, two lieutenants and the two undercover deputies who arrested Russ will be disciplined for their poor timing caused by miscommunication, Causey said. He would not disclose what type of disciplinary action would be taken, but McMahon was working Wednesday.

Family members reported mourners were so alarmed by the arrest as pallbearers loaded the casket into the hearse that they fled the funeral before Russ’ 70-year-old father, Gladwyn Taft Russ Jr., was buried with military honors. In the chaos, one of the deputies’ guns fell out of its holster.

“I apologize to anyone that was there,” Causey said Wednesday. “Family, friends, relatives. ... That was a bad decision.”

Family members declined to comment on Wednesday, and Causey said he had not personally met with them. McMahon, however, has met with the family several times. And Causey said he would be willing to meet with Russ’ family if they wished.

Originally, Causey said his deputies had planned to arrest Russ after the funeral, meaning after his father had been buried and mourners were leaving the grave site – not while Russ and other pallbearers were loading the casket into the hearse.

Chaos ensued at the funeral on Saturday because no one at the service initially knew who the deputies were. The deputies, who blended in with the crowd in coats and ties, appeared at the funeral to arrest Russ discreetly on a warrant for communicating threats after he had misled them about turning himself in. The Aug. 6 warrant alleged that Russ had threatened to kill his estranged wife, who is in another state. He reportedly had threatened to kill her a day before the warrant was issued.

The sheriff’s office obtained the warrant on Aug. 7, but it went without being served for three months because Causey said deputies thought Russ was out of state. Deputies finally spotted him on Nov. 8 and tried to serve the warrant, but Russ ran into his house and barricaded himself, Causey said. Instead of going in after him, deputies negotiated with Russ and agreed to let him turn himself in two days later because his father was going to have surgery.

It turned out Russ’ father died on Veterans Day, so Russ again pleaded with deputies for more time before surrendering so he could attend the funeral.

“This guy’s lied to us, run from us, hid from us,” Causey said, adding that his deputies were thinking “he’s gonna run again.”

So instead of waiting for Russ to come to them, the sheriff’s office decided to move in on him at the funeral.

“They said to him: ‘We’re with the sheriff’s office,’” Causey said. “He immediately started slinging and hollering. That immediately turned everything upside down. We still used bad judgment at the place we tried to arrest him.”

In addition to McMahon, those disciplined were Lt. Lachlan MacNeish, leader of the Emergency Response Team who began working at the sheriff’s office in 1992; Lt. Doug Price, assistant division commander of the uniform patrol division who started in 1991; deputy Eric Brown, who started in 1999; and deputy Vernon Jordan, who started in 2005.

McMahon, who started working at the sheriff’s office in 1991, has apologized for causing a frenzy at the funeral, but said deputies were afraid Russ would flee. McMahon said he didn’t want to take a chance because Russ had threatened to kill his wife. The sheriff’s office was particularly sensitive to the domestic violence situation because one of their own, a jailer, Tarica Pulliam, was shot to death by her ex-boyfriend Aug. 5 after he threatened to kill her and choked her nearly unconscious. Incidentally, she died the same day Russ allegedly threatened his wife.

And several years ago, McMahon had trusted an out-of-state man to leave his wife alone after he had also threatened her life. The man ended up shooting her to death.

Causey said Russ is also wanted in Maryland on charges of false imprisonment, kidnapping and assault. In Wilmington, Russ is being held at the New Hanover County jail on a $5,500 bond on charges of felony malicious conduct by a prisoner, assault on a government official, resisting an officer and disorderly conduct. He has been convicted in the past of resisting an officer, contempt of court and larceny, according to the N.C. Department of Correction.

“I want to apologize as sheriff,” Causey said. “It was just a bad situation made worse by some poor judgment, and I take responsibility for that. I do.”

Veronica Gonzalez: 343-2008

veronica.gonzalez@starnewsonline.com