"Ax Man" axed from Springfield Police Department

Springfield Police Officer Morris Taylor, known as Ax Man, has been axed from the department and charged with third degree assault for beating an inmate, according to a report by KY3's Sara Sheffield:

Police Chief Lynn Rowe fired Taylor on July 11. Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Darrell Moore charged him with third-degree assault on Thursday.

"I can understand the officer being upset because booking took longer than usual, because this guy lied to him originally about who he was and the booking had to be done again, but that is no excuse to go around hitting on people," said Moore.

Before being fired, Taylor had been with the department for 11 years.

"No law enforcement officer, especially anyone with any experience, should look at this and say this is okay," said Moore.

Rowe agrees.

"By policy and law, officers use force necessary to overcome force being presented. That's very clear but we also ask: don't go beyond what's necessary to overcome that force,” said Rowe.

Rowe says Taylor crossed the line in how he treated the inmate.

According to a detective’s probable cause statement filed in court with the charge, jail employees say they saw Taylor hit inmate John Sedersten with a closed fist, use his knee to strike Sedersten in the side, knocked the inmate to the floor, hitting Sedersten’s head on the floor, and then “had his knee on the side of Sedersten’s face/head and then struck him on the right side of his face/head after he (Sedersten) responded to several questions.”

The prosecutor says this was all caught on tape.