Metra: Officers were justified in using Taser on man

A Bloomingdale man claims Metra police used excessive force when they subdued him with a Taser earlier this week during a dispute on a Milwaukee West Line train.

Ryan Hutchinson, 20, says railroad police stunned him four times and then charged him with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after he refused Monday morning to come down from the upper level of a Metra train.

Railroad police used unjustifiable force in making the arrest, Hutchinson's attorney, Robert Fakhouri of Goldberg, Weisman & Cairo, said Friday. He said his client plans to file a lawsuit.

But Metra officials said "the incident could have been avoided" had Hutchinson followed the conductor's instructions.

"Metra has a responsibility to maintain a safe environment for its riders and we take that responsibility very seriously," officials said in a statement. "We will remove passengers who are being disorderly and refuse a conductor's requests to stop."

According to the Metra statement, Hutchinson and a minor were arrested. They were among a group of "apparently intoxicated riders" using obscene language on the outbound train, Metra said.

A conductor asked the passengers to stop, but they responded with more obscene language, according to Metra. When the train stopped at the Western Avenue station, the conductor spotted two officers and asked them to remove the two passengers.

The minor complied with the officers' commands, but Hutchinson still refused to come down, so officers went to the upper level to remove him, Metra said. The case was captured on a video.

"Although he is heard on the video saying he was not resisting arrest, he was in fact not allowing the officers to put him in handcuffs," the Metra statement says. "It was not until after the officer drive-stunned him with the Taser that they were able to place him in handcuffs and remove him from the train."

Hutchinson's next court date is July 27.