Furman takes stand, defends force: 'People in handcuffs can still do bad things.'

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Begin tonight with the criminal case against a polarizing Melvindale police officer now in the hands of a jury. Good evening and welcome to 7 News Detroit at 6. [music] I'm Carolyn Clifford.

[00:00:11]>> And I'm Mike Duffy. The prosecution rested its case against Matthew Furman while the former lieutenant took the stand in his own defense. He's facing a slew of felony and misdemeanor charges over his role in two different uses of force first revealed by the 7 investigators.

[00:00:27]>> 7 investigator Ross Jones has been in the courtroom all week long during the trial and he joins us now with more.

[00:00:35]People tend to be a lot more cooperative when it comes to having a taser pointed at them because they know it's going to be a very unpleasant experience. Matthew Furman is fending off assault charges stemming from two separate police stops where he used his taser. One of those stops involved Richard Carl Williams who Furman repeatedly drive stunned with his taser because he said he was uncooperative.

[00:00:55]Hands behind your back. Interlace your fingers. Hands behind YOUR BACK.

[00:01:00]>> [screaming] >> HE'S GOT ME. HE'S GOT ME.

[00:01:03]I WILL SAY 99.9% of traffic stops go smoothly and without incident, but I have been I've been involved in chases. I've had my patrol car rammed. I've been punched, kicked, bitten, spit on, stomped, beaten. Um I was dragged down the road uh a couple hundred feet by a car. Furman's lawyer Dennis White he would show video from that last incident 9 years before his client would tase Williams where Furman was dragged by a fleeing driver. That Furman says highlights just how dangerous traffic stops can quickly become. Yeah, I've had nightmares about that incident. I think about it all the time and it's it's on my mind with pretty much every traffic stop. Furman said his use of the taser was proper and within policy because Williams did not immediately comply with his commands to leave the vehicle or put his hands behind his back. And as for the video showing Furman pulling Williams' hair into the back of a fire truck while he was handcuffed.

[00:02:02]>> People in handcuffs can still do bad things. He said his decision to tase Alicia Cook, the mother parked in a school parking lot with her daughters while they waited for cheerleading practice to start followed the force continuum. And in closing arguments, attorney White he said his client was never found to have violated Melvindale's policies. You may not like it. You may not like him at all and I don't expect you to.

[00:02:24]I don't expect any of you to.

[00:02:26]But you you've taken an oath to to render a just verdict under the law. And what the law says here like it or not followed the policy. Under cross-examination, assistant prosecuting attorney Matthew Makepeace asked Furman why he was so quick to use his taser while another officer held Williams by the shoulders. Even though Lieutenant Raman has him on his right arm on top of the car telling him to calm down you're yelling at him to put his hands behind his back. Is that fair? Correct.

[00:02:59]And as you're saying it the second time during you say you don't even finish it.

[00:03:03]You just tase him as you're saying it.

[00:03:05]Correct? Correct. You did not give him any chance to comply with that second command.

[00:03:11]Shouldn't have need for a second command. He should have complied after the first. And with a drive stun you typically want to use that if possible as a surprise so that people aren't able to prepare to attack or defend themselves from that.

[00:03:22]>> Where in the taser policy that Melvindale has does it say you should drive stun by surprise?

[00:03:30]I don't know that that's in there.

[00:03:32]>> He asked Furman why he left out an important detail in his use of force report about the Williams stop.

[00:03:37]>> You never mentioned anything about putting his head into a fire truck in that report. Correct?

[00:03:43]I don't recall.

[00:03:45]Would you like to see that person portion of the report? Yes. In their closing, the prosecution said Furman was a symptom of a department that had long been a mess. No oversight and no accountability allowing bad behavior to continue unchecked. He did all of those things of his own free will.

[00:04:04]Knowing because of the situation at Melvindale that he could get away with it.

[00:04:08]Because there was no oversight. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm asking you now to be that oversight.

[00:04:16]The jury will continue deliberations at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow and that was 7 investigator Ross Jones reporting.