Man resists arrest and is tased by officer during arrest for harassment

Charles Sean Berger, 27, of Gainesville, is scheduled for a criminal setting before Associate Circuit Judge Raymond Gross at 9 a.m. Nov. 14. 

Berger was arrested Oct. 16 and released Oct. 18 on his own recognizance, meaning he signed to agree to show up in court and abide by varying conditions set by the court for pre-trial release.

According to the probable cause statement, prepared by Ozark County Sheriff’s Deputy Josh Sherman, on Oct. 15, the OCSD was contacted by a victim who wanted to report that Berger had sent her numerous messages relating to her boyfriend and his desire to fight him, the statement says.

The woman said that the calls and messages were concerning to her and her boyfriend. She said that in a few hours span, Berger had sent approximately 100 text messages and a host of phone calls, most of which had little to no response from either the woman or the boyfriend. She sent screenshots of the texts to Sherman for review. He confirmed that there were about 100 messages and numerous phone calls. 

In one of the messages, Berger had reportedly sent a photo of a residence on Cedar Oak Drive, taken from the street, with a message to get the boyfriend to come out and confront him.

“I went to the residence of where Charles could [have taken the photo of the home], located at the address involved in the call. I met with the tenant who spoke with me and indicated that only he and his wife reside at the residence, but the boyfriend had previously resided there…” the report says. “He confirmed that his mutual friend, the woman who made the initial call, had communicated with him and provided him a ‘heads up’ that Charles may be coming to that location and cause an issue. He said he had not seen Charles but would notify Ozark County Sheriff Department if he sees him…”

Sherman left shortly after and conducted an area search for Berger. He called him, making contact with the suspect at 9:38 a.m. and spoke with him for about 15 minutes. Sherman noted that the phone number Berger was using was the same number that was used to make the calls and texts to the victims. 

Sherman wrote that Berger was highly agitated and was screaming at the officer from the time he answered the call, saying that he is “He is upset at [the boyfriend] for driving drunk all the time, this ‘drama’ is ‘white trash’ drama, law enforcement doesn’t need to handle this ‘white trash’ situation because he will ‘beat [the boyfriend’s] head off when he sees him,’ he will put ‘his life on it,’ he said he ‘will take care of’ the boyfriend, along with other threatening statements. 

The officer asked Berger if he was in the immediate area of the residence that he believed [the boyfriend] to be at, and he told the officer it wasn’t his business and that he “runs from [law enforcement] often,” and will fight officers or continue to flee if approached. 

Sherman contacted the woman again and asked if she had continued to receive messages, and she said Berger was continuing to call and text her. 

She said that she was seeking an ex-parte order of protection against him for the threats that have been made toward her, the boyfriend and family. 

She told the officer that she and her boyfriend were in West Plains when the calls and messages were coming in, and she said she wanted to pursue charges for harassment because she worried that Berger would harm her, her family or her boyfriend if any of them saw him in public. 

Sherman went to a second area search and found Berger, who the officer recognized from previous interactions. Sherman parked and got out of his truck, watching while Berger turned away from him with something in his hand. Sherman told Berger to stop walking and that he had a warrant for his arrest. Berger reportedly told the officer he didn’t have a warrant and continued to step back away from him. 

“I contacted him on his right upper arm to try and place him in custody. He spun away... and continued to say he didn’t have a warrant. I continued to yell commands to stop his actions,” Sherman wrote, explaining that the suspect began getting aggressive and agitated acting toward him. “He was tensing his muscles up as I was trying to maintain control over him [and he was] stepping away from me.”

Sherman attempted to place handcuffs on Berger’s right wrist, but as the cuffs made contact, Berger tensed again and moved his arm in a way that caused him to strike the cuffs, hitting them out of the officer’s hands and onto the ground away from them. 

“I told him to stop, or he would be tasered. I maintained contact and pointed the taser at him and engaged him with the taser as he continued to not comply,” Sherman wrote. “At the time of contact in his chest with the taser I maintained contact with the same arm and guided him to the ground where he started to comply and was on the ground saying ‘OK’ to my commands.”

 As the officer gathered Berger’s hands behind his back, the suspect reportedly continued to pull his arms away from Sherman and tuck them under his chest in an apparent effort to keep from being handcuffed. 

“He continued to do the same hiding and pulling technique with his left arm after his right arm was in cuffs. He was placed in cuffs successfully following additional commands to comply. He leaned forward and screamed loudly [the boyfriend’s name], “you piece of [expletive]!”

He is charged with first-degree harassment, resisting and interfering with an arrest for a felony and peace disturbance.