ST. LOUIS, May 21, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- In the Line of Duty, the leading producer of law enforcement video training, reports that an Ohio judge has caused ripples in the medical examiner community after ordering the Summit County Ohio medical examiner to change her rulings in three deaths.
The case garnered national attention in the law enforcement, medical examiner and legal communities after Medical Examiner Dr. Lisa Kohler ruled that, at least in part, the deaths were caused by the TASER devices.
In all three instances, the subjects were finally contained by officers utilizing the TASER device.
All three individuals were high on combinations of methamphetamines, ecstasy and/or alcohol.
30-year-old Dennis Hyde died on January 5, 2005 after a violent confrontation with several Akron officers. He had broken into a home and had torn out skin on his wrists to the bone. Shouting he was "the devil," Hyde was finally tased.
He died later after going into cardiac arrest.
18-year-old Richard Holcomb was involved in a May 28, 2005 confrontation with a female Springfield Township (OH) police officer. She'd been responding to a trespassing report at a farm, and despite repeated verbal commands, Holcomb charged the officer, and the TASER device was used on him. The officer had the TASER in one hand and her duty weapon in the other and chose to use the TASER.
Holcomb, like Hyde, died later. He'd been high on ecstasy and methamphetamine.
28-year-old Mark McCullaugh, Jr. died on August 20, 2006 after a violent struggle with deputies at the Summit County Jail's Mental Health Unit. He'd been arrested several days prior on a public nuisance complaint.
At some point, McCullaugh had become violent, and five Summit County deputies entered his feces-filled cell to try to contain him. One officer became so fatigued he was forced to leave the cell.
In what sheriff's deputies said was an attempt to get him under control, deputies used a TASER device on him and a jail nurse injected him with two drugs, Geodon and Ativan, used to treat anxiety and mood disorders. Some 15 minutes later, she was summoned to McCullaugh's cell, because he had gone into arrest. He subsequently died. The autopsy revealed the grossly obese man had a severely enlarged and diseased heart.
In three prior arrests, the TASER device had successfully been used to contain him with no repercussions.
Afterwards, 15 Akron area officers were charged civilly in the incidents, five were charged criminally, and one was charged with homicide.
In the Line of Duty (http://www.lineofduty.com) reports that TASER and the City of Akron joined forces to dispute Dr. Kohler's findings. TASER and the City of Akron claimed that the medical examiner and her deputies had simply not done sufficient research into the TASER devices and that there was "absolutely no proof" TASER had in any way been responsible for the deaths.
A four-day trial was held in Summit County Common Pleas Court before visiting Judge Ted Schneiderman.
TASER relied on a "multiple number of experts...in the area of sudden and unexpected death during law enforcement attempt to gain custody." The company contended that the medical examiner's office had had research and information at its disposal but didn't do "its homework." Judge Schneiderman agreed. In his ruling, he instructed the medical examiner to remove all references to the TASER stun gun as a contributing cause of death in the cases of all three men. In addition, he ordered that the cause of death in the McCullaugh case be changed from "homicide" to "undetermined."
The judge said that there was "simply no medical, scientific or electrical evidence to support the conclusion TASER had anything to do with the deaths."
They were findings which TASER said were absolutely right, and John Maley, TASER attorney, said the findings were the only possible conclusion (http://www.lineofduty.com/news).
In the Line of Duty reports that what effect the decision will have on the criminal cases against the five Summit County deputies or the one charged with homicide remains to be seen.
However, Ron Barber, President of In the Line of Duty says, "It's going to have considerable impact, I believe, not only in the officers' favor but also as it pertains to the medical examiner community."
For further information, contact In the Line of Duty at lineofduty.com or 1-800-462-5232.