Mitch Sigg thinks when he and son John were arrested by Allen County officers the evening of Feb. 2, the arrests were not only unnecessary but also were done in an unnecessarily rough manner. SHERIFF MURPHY said arrests of the Siggs occurred when they became confrontational and obstructive.
Sheriff Bryan Murphy thinks what occurred was appropriate and justified.
Mitch Sigg recounted his view of what occurred for the Register:
John Sigg was driving and was stopped for a defective headlight on U.S. 54 near the Rock Creek bridge.
His grandfather, also named John Sigg, called young Sigg at the time of the incident, and then contacted Mitch Sigg, who went to the scene.
“They were pushing John, who had been handcuffed, to the ground, when I drove by,” Mitch Sigg said. He stopped and asked what the problem was and interpreted the responses as obnoxious, and responded with words of his own.
“I wasn’t pleased,” he said. “The boy had a headlight out. Why didn’t they just tell him to go home and get it fixed.”
The young John Sigg later said he was told to sit on the ground after being handcuffed. That’s a matter or protocol, Murphy said.
Initially, Mitch Sigg said the officers said the car’s registration was out of date and that John had no proof of insurance.
The tag, he pointed out, had a February 2013 sticker on it and said all their dealer tags — he and his father, John, operate Sigg Motors — had insurance cards attached to the backs.
Also, Sigg noted that according to Michael Fracul, in the Department of Revenue’s Division of Vehicles, having a dealer’s tag means liability insurance was in force, provided the driver had a valid license.
Eventually, the registration and insurance issues were settled. Meanwhile, conversations became heated and officers deemed the Siggs were obstructing their efforts to the point they were arrested.
Mitch Sigg said he also was handcuffed and when put in a holding cell the cuffs, holding his hands behind his back, were left on.
“By about midnight (the incident started at 7 p.m.) my hands were numb and I was taken to the hospital emergency room,” he said, where he was told the cuffs were cinched tight enough they had affected nerves in his wrists.
Thursday afternoon Sigg said parts of his hands and the tops of his thumbs still were numb.
He intends to act as his own attorney in the case and asked for a report concerning the incident from the county attorney’s office, which he said an attorney was entitled to during the discovery phase of a case.
“They wouldn’t give it to me, just the front page” that has little information, Sigg said. “Also, I asked for a written denial, but didn’t get one.”
When Mitch Sigg drove up, “the deputy didn’t know who he was and officers have to maintain control of any situation,” he said. “In today’s environment you don’t know what might happen, even with a traffic stop. Officers get shot, they get run over.
“When Mitch arrived things started to deteriorate. Mitch was handcuffed (and eventually arrested) to maintain control.”
Murphy pointed out that all that occurred at the scene of the traffic stop was recorded by cameras attached to officers’ headsets. All that occurs in the jail also is recorded.
Mitch Sigg’s handcuffs remained on after he arrived at the jail and was put in the holding cell, Murphy added, “because he was loud and belligerent.”
The sheriff confirmed that Sigg was examined by emergency medical personnel when he complained of his hands being numb and was taken to Allen County Hospital’s emergency room for further examination.
He then was released on an own recognizance bond, as John Sigg had been earlier.
“You don’t oppose an officer at a traffic stop,” Murphy observed. “The officer has to have control and that’s what the deputy did by handcuffing and arresting the Siggs.
“He had no idea who either was, didn’t know Mitch was John’s father when he drove up.
“As it was, the insurance issue, which is an arrestable offense, was later resolved. It was a miscommunication,” he said. “If conversations at the arrest scene had remained calm and civil, everything would have worked right there.”
Arrests prompt dispute
