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OGDEN — A man is suing Utah Highway Patrol with claims that he was nearly beaten to death by a group of troopers.
Around 10 p.m. on July 9, Ronny Todd May was driving toward his office following a friend in another car when he was pulled over by UHP troopers for following too closely and running a red light.
When the traffic stop turned into a drug search and May began taking his shoes off at the request of the troopers, May pulled a prescription methamphetamine medication for narcolepsy from his shoe and swallowed the pill.
According to May, troopers demanded he spit out the medication, and then threw him on the ground where they punched him and stunned him with a stun gun repeatedly.
For a minute there I thought they were going to kill me.
–- Ronny Todd May
"For a minute there I thought they were going to kill me," May said. "I went out for a second and came back and still felt the beating and Tazering going on."
May said he told the trooper it was his prescription methamphetamine when he put it into his mouth, but the trooper only saw a small baggy with a "loose granular white substance" in it.
May ended up with a concussion and serious bruises and abrasions.
Though May says swallowing the pill was a mistake, and his attorney Rober Sykes says May's actions did allow police to use reasonable force, they also say the troopers should be punished for using excessive force.
"You can't use excessive force. They can't use excessive force just because he swallowed something that may be illegal," Sykes said.
Dashcam video from that night shows one trooper punched May seven or eight times, and they stun him several times.
"It was a feeding frenzy to beat the daylights out of him," Sykes said.
He says the troopers violated the legal standard for force related to swallowed evidence, violating May's civil rights. May and Sykes are seeking $250,000 in damages to cover May's medical expenses.
