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4 cops could be fired for Taser incident

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck is seeking the dismissal of four officers seen laughing on video after one of them used a Taser on a handcuffed woman.

The officers were suspended until August after the December 2010 incident, in which officer Jorge Santander can be seen on video using a Taser twice -- without warning -- against the torso of a restrained woman who resisted getting into his patrol car after arrest, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

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The woman, whose name was not reported, had been arrested for public intoxication.

Santander and the other three officers -- Steven Bauman, Jose Lepe and Georgeta Buruiana -- initially reported that Santander used the Taser because the woman kicked him so hard he lost balance, the Times reported.

An outline of events written by a prosecutor in the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said Bauman recorded the incident with a personal video camera, proving the officers' initial report false.

The video showed Santander revealing a Superman T-shirt below his uniform at one point during in the incident while the other three laughed.

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Beck has elected to send the officers to a Board of Rights hearing, the only panel allowed to fire officers, the Times reported.

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