A former Southern Virginia University and Brigham Young University adjunct professor of political philosophy and jurisprudence, Dr. Lowery entered the Utah Third District courtroom alone on November 22, 2004, to make oral argument before Judge Anthony Quinn. Two Salt Lake County Deputy Sheriffs sat at the back of the courtroom, one on each side of the door. Other deputies were in the foyer of the courtroom. No members of the public were present.

Dr. Lowery suffered from major depression, bipolar disorder, paranoia disorder, delusional disorder, and psychotic disorder. Judge Quinn granted one of Dr. Lowery’s motions made under the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title II, which allowed for reasonable modifications of court rules, policies, or practices in order to accommodate Dr. Lowery’s multiple mental disabilities.

Near the end of his oral argument, the traumatic content of the argument moved Dr. Lowery into moderate mania, and he characterized a previous crabbed ruling by Quinn as “bullshit.”

Impatient for the speech to end, Judge Quinn took that as an opportunity to order the bailiffs to take the professor into custody and cool him off.­

The plaintiff’s state of agitation was caused by his mental disabilities. The deputy sheriffs’ approach only caused the situation to escalate. As five or more Salt Lake County deputy sheriffs/bailiffs seized Lowery from behind, he shouted, “I am cooled off; I deserve to be heard­­— I deserve to be heard­­, your Honor, and you are violating my access to due process at this very moment. I am not violent and—“

Judge Quinn interrupted him with ordering the bailiffs to take Dr. Lowery to a holding cell. A split second later—unclear whether following the judge’s orders or acting on his own accord, a bailiff sent 50,000 volts of incapacitating electricity into the lower back of the unsuspecting professor. As the courtroom video shows, nothing in Dr. Lowery’s behavior suggests that the bailiffs had any reasonable motive to believe they or the judge were in physical danger.

Yet the taser gun fired more than once.

The repeated electric shocks blew Dr. Lowery over the podium, and he landed face down on the floor, with two bailiffs on his back. The electric blasts caused Dr. Lowery’s bowels to empty twice. He screamed, “Help me!” while he complied with a bailiff’s order to stay on his belly, neither capable nor willing to offer resistance. Then, suddenly, he went unconscious.

Remembering they were still on camera, the bailiffs shouted at Dr. Lowery to not resist again (though his resistance was only instinctive) and threatened him with more electrocution. When they realized that he could no longer hear them, they dragged the man across the floor, put him in a chair, and massaged his heart. One bailiff called for paramedics.




The bailiffs put the unconscious and still handcuffed professor into a courthouse elevator. When they reached the bottom floor of the courthouse to meet the paramedics, they threw the professor on the concrete floor on his back.

The impact with the floor and the pain in his cuffed wrists caused Dr. Lowery to regain consciousness. He heard the bailiffs taunting him. He also heard one bailiff using a walkie-talkie say, “Hey, this guy is a mental case!”

The bailiffs then got quiet. Dr. Lowery went unconscious again.

Paramedics took Lowery to LDS Hospital, where he was awakened with a medical substance. He found himself handcuffed to the hospital bed and in a state of cycling mania and major depression.

While the doctor questioned Dr. Lowery about the beating and electrocution, one of the deputies told Lowery to shut up. The policemen also refused to allow Dr. Lowery to phone his psychiatrist or his psychotherapist.

After examining him, the doctor induced Lowery to sleep for some hours. The professor woke up in the presence of only the doctor and a new deputy sheriff who appeared to be kind and compassionate. His last name was also Lowery.

Yet, when the doctor wanted to put Dr. Lowery in the LDS Hospital psychiatric ward, the “kind” policeman forbid it. He took the professor to jail instead.

Dr. Lowery was released that night. No charges were levied against him.

After a visit with his psychiatrist, it became clear that the shockingly brutal treatment in the courthouse had caused Dr. Lowery unrepairable brain damage. Given the hundreds of examples of taser effects on the health and state of disabled people or people on medication/drugs, the abuse of authority by both Judge Quinn and the deputy sheriffs could have even lead to the death of their victim.

Adequately trained and competent bailiffs should know what is appropriate in any situation. Those in Judge Quinn’s courtroom responded with force to a situation that could and should have been resolved verbally. Their inappropriate actions had not been provoked. The bailiffs did not give a verbal warning before using their tasers; they treated a law-abiding citizen as a criminal.

With odds of six against one, the 53-year old university professor was hardly a danger. He made no attempt to fight them; he wasn’t even facing them. They tased him while he was looking the judge in the eye, asking him not to violate his right of due process. Such actions are nothing less than a pure display of aggression and/or incompetence.

The judge had also neglected the universal knowledge that calming mentally disabled people down verbally should come before using force, especially in the courtroom where he had allowed for reasonable modifications of the rules, policies, and practices to be made in order to accommodate Dr. Lowery’s five severe and persistent mental disabilities. The plaintiff’s outburst was caused by his mental disabilities, and ordering the bailiffs to cuff him was the wrong thing to do. Judge Quinn violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title II, and this is grossly unacceptable.

Since no one but the victim and the abusers were in the courtroom, this crime remained unknown to the public until recently. After more than three years of trying to cope with his impaired brain functions, Dr. Lowery has filed a criminal complaint against Judge Quinn, the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Department, the State of Utah, and Salt Lake County.