Gannett papers sued by Taser International over stories

July 2, 2005
Robert Anglen, The Arizona Republic

Taser International Inc. filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming that USA Today and The Arizona Republic published inaccurate information about its electric stun gun.

Taser, which is facing inquiries by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Arizona Attorney General's Office over the safety of the weapon, accused the newspapers' parent company, Gannett Co., Inc., of libel, invasion of privacy and damaging its business.

"Over the course of this biased campaign, more than one billion dollars of shareholder value has been erased," Taser Chief Executive Officer Rick Smith said in a statement Friday. "Further, we have reason to believe that some law-enforcement agencies delayed deploying Taser devices based on this false and misleading information."

Gannett spokeswoman Tara Connell said the company would study the complaint before it issued a comment.

The focus of the suit is the content of a June 3 USA Today article, which Taser says overstated the electrical output of a Taser stun gun.

USA Today published a correction three days later, saying that "due to a mathematical error, the original version of this story significantly overstated the amount of electricity delivered by a Taser."

Taser also accused The Republic of "unfairly impugning the safety aspects" of Taser and "groundlessly linking" the stun gun to more than 100 deaths.

An ongoing investigation by The Republic has identified 120 people who have died in the United States and Canada since 1999 after a police Taser strike. Of those, medical examiners have cited Taser in 17 deaths.

In autopsy reports, the medical examiners list Taser as a cause of death in three cases and a contributing factor in 10 cases. In four other cases, they could not rule out Taser as a cause of death.