Vermont Taser Death Investigation Stalls

September 13, 2012
By William Boardman, IVN

Vermont Taser Death Investigation Stalls

None of the officials involved in Vermont’s first taser death can explain why it’s almost three months since a Vermont State trooper tasered Macadam Mason, a 39-year-old epileptic artist who died almost immediately, and there’s still no completed autopsy report.

The same officials in two states, Vermont and New Hampshire, also failed to reveal last June that Taser International, the taser manufacturer, almost immediately intervened in the investigation, submitting guidance and background information for the Vermont State Police and the NH medical examiner’s office that was in the midst of performing Mason’s autopsy. That was June 21 and Taser’s involvement remained unknown to the public until reported September 9 by the Burlington Free Press.

Taser’s covert intervention into Mason’s taser-related death is part of apparently long-standing policy on the company’s part to intervene as early as possible to protect the Taser brand from bad publicity.

With some 500 taser-related American deaths since 2001, Taser has already changed its characterization of its 50,000 volt stun gun from “non-lethal” to “less lethal.”

Taser’s approach to taser deaths is to challenge anyone suggesting that taser was in any way to blame. Last July when OpEdNews.com ran a story headlined, “Taser Death In Vermont: Trooper Zaps Unarmed Epileptic Artist,” Stacey Todd of Taser International posted a comment asserting that: “It’s premature to describe Mr. Mason’s death as a ‘Taser death.’ To simply infer that the use of one police tool may be to be to blame for this man’s death is irresponsible as there are no facts to support that causal relationship.”

All reports of the event of June 20 are consistent, relating that when trooper David Schaeffer shot his taser at Macadam Mason, Mason dropped to the ground and never regained consciousness. He was taken to a hospital in NH where he was pronounced dead.

When asked, “do you think Mason would be dead even if no taser was used,” the Taser International spokesperson did not answer the question. Instead, Stacey Todd wrote that: “Until a medical expert, coroner or medical examiner, determines a cause of death it’s speculation to state that the Taser device caused Mr. Mason’s death.”

In fact, in three different cases in Ohio in 2005-06, when the Chief Medical examiner’s office in Summit County, Ohio, made exactly that determination, Taser International took the county to court. After a four-day trial in 2008, Ohio Judge Ted Schneiderman found for Taser on every item in the company’s complaint, as well as some items it had not requested, and ordered the medical examiner to re-write three separate death certificates.

The judge’s 13-page decision in May 2008 described three events that unambiguously included tasers and fatalities, as well other factors like extreme drug use, a badly slashed wrist, serious mental impairment, and obesity. These descriptions alone raise doubts about the taser use directly causing any of the three deaths, but tasers were indeed deployed just a matter of minutes before each of three men died, belying the judge’s conclusion that: “The Taser device had nothing to do with their deaths.” [emphasis added]

In Arizona, where Taser International is based in Scottsdale, the Arizona Republic newspaper of Phoenix covered the decision in a story that starts: “Taser International has fired a warning shot at medical examiners across the country. The Scottsdale-based stun gun manufacturer increasingly is targeting state and county medical examiners with lawsuits and lobbying efforts to reverse and prevent medical rulings that Tasers contributed to someone’s death.”

The medical examiner appealed the decision on seven separate issues, getting upheld on one and denied on the rest. In April 2009, the three-judge appeals court denied the medical examiner’s constitutional due process argument on the ground that it had not been raised in the original trial. The appeals court also reversed the trial judge for granting Taser items it had not requested.

In a pointed dissent, Judge Donna J. Carr argued that Taser International had no basis for bringing the suit in the first place “because it has not suffered an actual injury and because the interests it seeks to protect do not fall within the zone of interest to be protected by the statute.” The statute in question is concerned with preserving the integrity and finality of cause-of-death determinations.

Judge Carr went on to say that the cases the majority cited to support its position “involved persons with direct interests in the cause of death of the decedent, such as persons accused in the death, not corporations seeking to make a preemptive strike to preclude lawsuits from being filed against it.”

In Ohio, at least, “the controversy of medical examiners and Taser-related deaths” continued to make news in 2012 when WCPO-TV in Cincinnati looked into the taser-related death of a teenager that was ruled “unknown/undetermined” after he was tasered by a police officer. That ruling was challenged by the family’s attorney who said, “He’s a very clean and upstanding kid, very healthy kid…and the only thing that happened that night is he was tased and then he died and she’s saying this doesn’t matter, the Taser doesn’t matter…I don’t think so.”

WCPO also reported on a 2003 study by the Dept. of Defense that discussed the difficulty of assessing tasers as a cause-of-death, since electric shock leaves no tracks. Without direct evidence, medical examiners must rely on inference to assess the elements of a death, the same inferences that seemed so obvious to the Summit County medical examiner until Taser took her to court.

Asked if she had an opinion of the courts’ rulings, medical examiner Dr. Lisa J. Kohler said, “Yes.” She did not elaborate except to say, “I respectfully disagree with the original ruling. The death certificates reflect that disagreement in that they are unsigned.”

Whether any of these events have anything to do with the delay in Vermont getting Macadam Mason’s autopsy report from NH is anyone’s guess. Taser International has contacted at least some of the officials involved. The Vermont Attorney General’s office and the Vermont State Police won’t comment. The NH Medical Examiner’s office says that Taser hasn’t influenced them. The NH Attorney General’s office refers inquiries to the Vermont Attorney General and other NH officials refers autopsy questions to the Vermont State Police. The Vermont State Police won’t comment beyond saying that, when it gets the autopsy report, it will forward copies to the Attorney General and to the Orange County State’s Attorney Office, which has primary jurisdiction, since Mason died in Thetford in Orange County.

Is excited delirium killing coked-up, stun-gunned Miamians?

July 13, 2010
By Gus Garcia-Roberts, Miami New Times News

"And then all of a sudden he broke out in a great flame of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing the cane, and carrying on like a madman." — The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

It was as if he were two people. Most of the time, Xavia Jones was a mellow, caring father to his daughter, Catherine. He was an ex-con determined to self-improve, a CNN junkie who studied after work at the Miami Beach Convention Center to earn union certification.

But more and more often, something terrible was taking hold of the lanky Opa-locka native whose skin was inked with "Immortal," "Outlaw," and "Thug Life." Xavia's live-in girlfriend, Carrie, would find him hiding behind the couch, a sweating, convulsing fugitive from invisible corrections officers or other unknown enemies. And he'd burst into evil spells, slapping Carrie and pulling her hair, threatening to kill her for cheating on him, his face a dark slate. "He could be a very good friend," Carrie says, "or the next moment he could be scared and paranoid, thinking everybody in the world was after him."

And then one Friday night after work in January 2008, Xavia permanently entered his own private horror show. Sitting on a couch among friends in a Coral Gables condo, sweating, twitching, and blasted on lines of coke and a half-dozen beers, he hugged himself and pleaded, "Oh, please, Jesus, give me the strength not to do this."

Then he began growling, screaming, and running in and out of the apartment like a man on fire.

At 2 a.m., Coral Gables cops found him lying in the middle of traffic-clogged U.S. 1, screaming, "God is coming to take me!" As an officer edged toward him with gun drawn, Xavia's eyes gleamed as he dared him: "Kill me, kill me, shoot me, shoot me."

One of the four cops present would later say Xavia's threatening posture made it "unsafe to approach." So Sgt. Jesus Garcia unloaded his Taser four times into the writhing man. It "seemed to have no effect." So another officer, Scott Selent, hit him with five more electrical bolts. This time, Xavia "kind of locked up, almost like he was a board," the police would later recall.

As the electricity coursed through Xavia's muscles, the cops slapped cuffs on his wrists, dragged him to the sidewalk, and set him facedown on the pavement. "What the heck is going on?" one officer asked.

"Fuck you, motherfucker," was the answer. As soon as Xavia said it, his body went limp and a white liquid trickled from his mouth.

Xavia Jones was the fifth person to die after being hit with a police stun gun in Miami-Dade, according to a December 2008 study by Amnesty International, ranking it seventh of all counties in the United States. Fifty-two people died in Florida after being hit by the 50,000-volt department-issued Tasers, second only to California's 55.

But the electricity didn't kill Xavia, according to Miami-Dade County associate medical examiner Erik Mont. The official cause: "excited delirium syndrome, associated with cocaine use."

The symptoms were all there, wrote Mont: "agitation, excitability, paranoia, aggression, great strength, numbness to pain, and sudden death."

In fact, in all five county cases of death following tasing, the medical examiner's office named excited delirium as the cause of death. According to the 2008 Amnesty International study, 111 of the nation's 334 post-Taser deaths were blamed on excited delirium.

The bizarre syndrome, first diagnosed in Miami, transforms its typically sane victim into a slobbering, raging, supernaturally strong menace hell-bent on self-destruction. It could be ripped straight from the pages of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Scottish scribe Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 archetypal tale of split personality. In the novella, the gentle Dr. Jekyll drinks a potion to become the murderous, hideous Mr. Hyde. In this real-life affliction, the spark is cocaine.

Excited delirium appears to be inflicting Miamians at an especially alarming rate. Since 1989, the Miami-Dade medical examiner's office has declared 38 people dead of the syndrome. In the past decade alone, that number is 28, compared to five during that time in Broward County.

The Miami victims were predominantly male. Twenty were white or Hispanic; 18 were black. They included a hairdresser, a truck driver, and an attorney. Thirty-six of them had cocaine in their system. The other two were diagnosed schizophrenics.

Among the cases: the crack-addicted former lawyer who ran around Liberty City, screaming that somebody was trying to kill him. He broke into an abandoned house and began beating the walls, and himself, with a stick when he was tased. He died in handcuffs soon after.

Then there was the 35-year-old Northwest Miami-Dade father who for a full day had been "acting paranoid" and was unable to recognize his children, his wife later told cops. Police showed up after he ran into noontime traffic, and he stopped breathing one to two minutes after being handcuffed.

Perhaps the strangest rampage was that of the Key Largo vacationer from Homestead who jumped on the hood of a moving vehicle and rode it for a mile, ransacked a toll booth after chasing away the collector, and climbed in and out of an unlocked van before bursting into an occupied houseboat and hiding in the bathroom. When cops showed up, he swam to a small island, where he was finally apprehended and expired in plastic cuffs and leg restraints.

While Miami-Dade seems to be far outpacing more populated counties throughout the nation in the number of excited delirium cases, critics from the American Civil Liberties Union and the families of victims believe there's a reason the syndrome resembles overwrought fiction: because it is.

The syndrome is not listed in textbooks or recognized by the American Medical Association or the American Psychiatric Association. It has been met with skepticism as it has spread to the United Kingdom and Canada: A police psychologist in Canada recently made headlines when he testified that excited delirium is a "mythical... dubious disorder" used to justify the use of stun guns, and the Canadian Medical Association Journal has termed it a "pop culture phenomenon."

It is police, not excited delirium, causing at least some of the deaths, critics charge. Of 35 excited delirium death reports the Miami-Dade medical examiner's office made available to New Times, 23 of the subjects died after struggling with police officers. Besides the five tasing incidents, they were hogtied, headlocked, and pepper-sprayed. All were unarmed.

"It's overused by medical examiners across the country to hide brutal murders by law enforcement," says Ronald J. Kurpiers, an attorney who recently challenged the diagnosis in a U.S. Supreme Court lawsuit against West Palm Beach Police officers. "It's bullshit."

As for Xavia Jones's bereaved girlfriend, Carrie, she tells their 5-year-old daughter, Catherine, that Daddy died of a heart attack. "When she gets older," Carrie explains, "I'll tell her the whole story."

Asked if she thinks the police killed Xavia, Carrie scoffs. "I can tell you that he wouldn't have died if they weren't there."

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Four decades before Robert Louis Stevenson is said to have scrawled his nightmare-inspired tale of rampage in a three-day cocaine-fueled writing spell, a horse and carriage pulled on to the manicured grounds of the McLean Asylum for the Insane in Somerville, Massachusetts. The coach had traveled 40 miles, and the 31-year-old woman whom orderlies struggled to extricate had "contended violently" the entire way.

She would be immortalized in scientific literature only as "E.A.P.," and she "attack[ed] wildly and discriminately all who approached her."

Her condition that day in July 1847 was a mystery. She was an Army wife, and her husband was away fighting the Mexican-American war. She didn't drink, so the asylum director, Luther V. Bell, ruled out she was suffering from the withdrawal mania delirium tremens. The normally reasonable woman had simply blown a fuse, it appeared, during tea with friends.

McLean Asylum was an opulent place, later home to the notably unstable such as Sylvia Plath, Rick James, and Ricky Williams. The patients ate lobster, and the psychiatric methods were relatively modern. But director Bell broke his own rule and tied E.A.P. to her hospital bed. For the next 16 days, she remained "highly excited" even as she was leeched and administered opium. She rarely slept and "recognize[d] no one."

Then E.A.P. contracted diarrhea. The next day, she simply died.

Bell observed 40 such befuddling cases of unexplained sudden mania from 1836 to 1849, with 30 of them ending in death. The "exhaustive mania" spurned him to publish an October 1849 study in the American Journal of Insanity.

He described the typical afflicted patient as uncomprehending and "suspicious," with dilated eyes and a "pinched-up... florid and greasy" face. "Oftentimes [the] sensation of danger will exhibit itself in the patient attacking any one who approaches him with a blind fury,'' Bell wrote. "If held, he will struggle with the utmost desperation, irrespective of the number or strength of those who may be endeavoring to restrain him... At the expiration of two or three weeks, your patient will sink in death."

The minority that weren't killed by exhaustive mania, wrote Bell, "emerge[d] in a state of absolute recovery at once."

While he noted that "almost every one" of those with the mysterious affliction was strapped to his bed, the doctor was clearly perplexed as to treatment options. He could only cautiously recommend small doses of opium and wine.

The affliction would become known as Bell's mania. Other early 20th-century scientists performed their own studies on similar lethal spells they called "psychotic furors" and "restraint psychosis." And more than a century after the mystery at the gilded asylum, director Bell's findings were revisited in a place he likely could not have imagined: the cocaine-flooded streets of 1980s-era Dade County.

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As the Victorian upper crust had treasured its cure-all opium, Miamians doted on their chic white powder at the height of the disco era. "Cocaine was thought to be an open secret, a wonder drug that nobody ever died from," says Dr. Charles A. Wetli, who took his post as Dade County's second-in-command coroner in the late 1970s. Meanwhile, his office processed two overdoses a week.

So Wetli, also a University of Miami pathology professor, co-authored a scientific paper about "death caused by recreational cocaine use" — a revolutionary concept at the time. But it was more difficult to explain an influx of strange cases that began showing up on his gurney: subjects who had raged wildly before sudden death. Cocaine was found in their systems, but not enough to cause overdose.

Wetli noted a profile. "It only happened in chronic users of cocaine, and predominantly in males," he says. "It's as if they're impervious to pain — to pepper spray, to batons, to numchucks. You spray them with pepper spray and they just sort of look at you."

Wetli and UM colleague David A. Fishbain found seven such cases — six in Miami-Dade and one in Palm Beach County — that had occurred during a 13-month period in 1983 and 1984. The resulting study pioneered excited delirium.

The death cases read like classics of the syndrome: The female drug trafficker, the only woman in the study, who suddenly jumped out of a moving car. "You're trying to kill me. Please don't kill me. I have children," she begged of her boyfriend, who was driving, as she dove out the passenger-side door. She died after several police officers "subdued" her with handcuffs and ankle restraints.

Or the 26-year-old man who fought with his boyfriend, stripped naked, and "ran about the apartment smashing a variety of objects," lacerating himself, before expiring in restraints at the hospital.

And the cocaine freebaser who "began running down the street yelling and screaming unintelligibly." He stole and fired a police officer's gun after being tackled. Cops struck him twice on the head with a heavy flashlight, but the medical examiner didn't find lethal injuries.

In five of the seven cases, the subjects died in police custody. Wetli and Fishbain didn't know why excited delirium caused death, but they posited it might have had something to do with the increasing purity of street cocaine. Their only recommendation was that cops and paramedics "be aware of the potential for sudden death" in crazed subjects.

But if Wetli was treading on shaky ground, his biggest case would call into question whether he was stretching the evidence to fit his theory.

For a decade, the bodies turned up in flop motels, parking lots, and alleyways throughout inner-city Miami. They were often naked from the waist down and all showed signs of recently having had sex. They were all black women. Most were prostitutes and chronic cocaine users.

Cops and medical examiners were stumped by the 32 corpses found from 1980 to the turn of the next decade. But it wasn't the work of a subtropical Jack the Ripper, declared Dr. Wetli. Autopsies "have conclusively showed that these women were not murdered," he told the now-defunct Miami News in 1988. Instead, he hatched a brazen theory that would come to provide ammunition for modern-day debunkers of excited delirium.

Wetli posited that a female offshoot of the syndrome, involving the combination of sex and years of cocaine use, had caused the serial deaths. "My gut feeling," Wetli told New Times in 1989, "is that this is a terminal event that follows chronic use of crack cocaine affecting the nerve receptors in the brain."

"For some reason," he expounded to the Miami News, "the male of the species becomes psychotic [after chronic cocaine use] and the female of the species dies in relation to sex."

But in 1992, police announced they had found a serial killer responsible for the deaths: 36-year-old Charles Henry Williams. Wetli's boss, chief examiner Joseph Davis, exhumed the bodies for re-examination and found evidence of asphyxia. Williams died of an AIDS-related illness before he could face the mounting evidence against him, which included physical links, accounts from escaped victims, and a pattern that showed that when he was in prison, the deaths ceased.

Wetli's apparent missed call 20 years ago casts doubt on excited delirium today, says Nashville attorney and National Police Accountability Project member Andrew Clark. "He's one of the guys who coined excited delirium, and he misapplied it to the work of a serial killer," Clark says. "How do we know his colleagues aren't making a similar mistake?"

Today, Wetli, who is in private practice in New Jersey, initially downplays his theory. He had to make a diagnosis so that the bodies could be buried, he says. But then it becomes clear he still believes that death-by-sex might have killed those women 20 years ago. "It's certainly a possibility," he says. "The guy never went to trial, so we'll never know. The police had a commendable theory in suspecting him. But believing in something, and proving it, is another story."

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University of Miami's brain bank, located on the fourth floor of a drab building in downtown Miami, is all cramped quarters, depressing lighting, and towering filing cabinets. It has about as much evil-lair feng shui as a small-town library.

But this — if you believe critics — is where neurology professor Deborah Mash, Dr. Wetli's heir as the world's leading expert on excited delirium, bends over brain samples, presumably with a hunchbacked assistant by her side, and concocts the science fiction that is gaining acceptance throughout the world.

"She's just a charlatan," California attorney John Burton, who has turned taking on Taser into his career, says of Mash. "She's not a medical doctor, and she has no business opining on cause of death."

But the 56-year-old, dark-eyed neurologist, who wears pantsuits and a skeptical smile, doesn't act the villain when she meets with New Times. She calls a reporter "silly boy" in a chirpy drawl and commiserates with the anger she attracts. "Everybody's pointing fingers. Nobody's happy," she says of excited delirium deaths. "And the problem for medical examiners is that they have no anatomic cause of death. You're running around manic one minute, and the next minute you're dead."

It's not the first time Mash has been called a junk scientist. She made headlines in the 1990s when she championed the use of an organic African hallucinogen called ibogaine as a "vaccine" for cocaine dependence. Stonewalled from government funds, she opened an ibogaine clinic on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts, and she says she's still continuing her research on the drug through private funding.

Mash has met similar resistance with excited delirium. The ACLU says it's used to "whitewash clear cases of police abuse," as spokesperson Eric Balaban puts it.

Founder of UM's groundbreaking Excited Delirium Education, Research and Information Center, Mash probably hasn't helped matters by providing paid expert testimony to Arizona-based Taser, International. The $2 billion company, which distributes stun guns to 40 countries, has successfully fended off dozens of wrongful death and product liability lawsuits.

Taser, which insists its guns are nonlethal, has become an enthusiastic lobbyist for excited delirium. Its reps distribute books about the subject at conferences for medical examiners and police chiefs, send information to medical examiners processing in-custody deaths, and even recently circulated a ready-made statement for police departments to use when somebody dies after being tased: "We regret the unfortunate loss of life. There are many cases where excited delirium caused by various mental disorders or medical conditions, that may or may not include drug use, can lead to a fatal conclusion."

The company has gone so far as to successfully sue medical examiner's offices, such as the one in Akron, Ohio, for listing Taser as a cause of death.

As stun guns have proven virtually unassailable in court, governments across the nation have adopted them en masse. In 2005, a Miami-Dade County grand jury recommended Taser use even in non-life-threatening situations. The finding cited excited delirium repeatedly, endorsing the use of Tasers "as a nonlethal method to incapacitate individuals" believed to be in the throes of the mania.

You could say the company appreciates Mash's work. "She's doing really cutting-edge research all on her own," says Taser spokesperson Steven Tuttle, "and it's very fascinating stuff."

In a 2009 deposition for a civil case against Taser, Mash admitted to earning $16,000 from Taser for excited delirium testimony the year before. In the court interview, she claimed to have forgotten how much the company paid her in previous years, and she recently refused to tell New Times how much Taser has paid her since. "I haven't done my taxes," says Mash, co-owner of an $868,000 North Bay Village house with ex-husband, former Miami-Dade Democratic Party chair, and mayor of the village, Joe Geller. The neurologist adds that Taser has never funded her research.

Mash insists she has testified only as an expert on excited delirium and has no opinion on the safety of stun guns. "Who cares about the Taser?" she squawks. "I don't care about the Taser, and I'll tell you why. Excited delirium was happening before the Taser. Excited delirium was happening in the 1800s, in Bell's institutionalized psych patients. If it happened with pepper spray, you'd say, 'Oh, it's the pepper spray that's killing them.'"

The same goes for restraints, hog ties, and baton strikes, Mash says. But the bottom line: "We have some cases where there were no police involved, and they still died."

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London native Matthew Kahn came to South Beach, along with his boyfriend and three other friends, seeking to celebrate the turning of the millennium in debaucherous fashion. The 28-year-old got his hands on a bag of crystal meth and snorted it away. And then, his partner Dale later told cops, he simply went "mad."

In the early morning of January 3, 2000, Matthew ripped apart the bathroom in a guest room at the Clay Hotel on Española Way, slicing and bruising himself in the process. Just before 10 a.m., paramedics found him in the throes of continuous seizures. He died in the South Shore Hospital emergency room, with only about a tenth of the amount of cocaine or meth in his system needed to cause overdose.

The English tourist's death is one of about five in Miami-Dade's recent history that Dr. Mash has reason to tout. There were no cops involved, no struggle, and no blunt trauma. Matthew, like those Massachusetts asylum patients of scientific lore, simply expired.

The same is true for a 36-year-old bail bondsman named Nathaniel Blash, married father to two teenagers, who was found dead, wearing only boxer shorts and jewelry, lying face-up under an SUV on NE 53rd Street, with cocaine in his system and no signs of injury.

And 29-year-old Marlon Sankar, a clean-living truck driver who apparently turned to cocaine in his distress over a breakup. Authorities found him lying nude and bleeding in his Miami Springs front yard after he tore apart his bathroom with his bare hands. (One simple theory for all of the destroyed bathrooms: that's the most common place to use drugs.) Marlon claimed he had been robbed and beaten — which was later determined to be untrue — and he died suddenly at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

And 41-year-old Roosevelt Baker, who on a hot July afternoon was sprinting in and out of a South Miami RaceTrac gas station and yelling incoherently when he collapsed dead before police arrived.

In this handful of cases, neither family members nor lawyers contested Dr. Mash's cocaine-induced syndrome. It seems there was nothing else there to cause death.

As a police report put it in the case of 29-year-old Stephen Daugharty, who collapsed after running through his Homestead neighborhood while screaming that someone was trying to kill him: "His father said that he had a good heart, but he loved drugs more than life."

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Even as the controversy has raged, Mash has spent the past decade studying patterns in the dissected brains of cadavers diagnosed with excited delirium. And she claims she is close to solving the mystery of why the disputed syndrome causes death.

Mash now believes certain people are genetically predisposed to excited delirium. Cocaine, methamphetamine, or in some cases, unmedicated mental illness is the spark that causes the "electrical event" transmitted from the brain to the heart.

"It's almost like a jack-in-the-box," Mash says of those prone to excited delirium. "The springs are fully wound. You can walk around your whole life like this and you're not going to pop your cork. But if you start smoking crack, and you've been hitting the crack pipe for a number of years, and then one day — dun-dun-dun — you have full-blown excited delirium."

The brain goes into hyperthermia, sizzling like bacon at temperatures of 105 degrees or higher, causing extremely sudden cardiac arrest, which is why many sufferers tend to rip off their clothes or seek shade under vehicles. "Medical examiners have described cases," Mash says, "where paramedics get to the scene and the room is trashed, there are ice cubes everywhere, and the subject is dead. That tells me that person was trying to cool down."

Mash believes some people might suffer "flicker episodes" — nonfatal spells — of excited delirium. If true, that could explain the flashes of strange behavior Xavia Jones exhibited months before being tased in Coral Gables, and it might even solve the mystery of those briefly afflicted patients at the 19th-century McLean Hospital who snapped out of their madness as quickly as they had been smitten by it.

However, there's still no way to identify those cursed with excited delirium until it's too late, Mash says. She responds it's "not [her] job" to give advice to cops or paramedics who encounter somebody in the throes of excited delirium. And she becomes glib when asked how people can protect themselves from dying of the syndrome: "Yeah, don't do drugs. If you're at risk for excited delirium — of course, we don't know who you are — no methamphetamine or cocaine for you. Start with that. And if you're a psychiatric patient, please keep your medicine compliant."

But Miami-Dade Fire Rescue paramedics have taken an unprecedented step in battling the body count: They are now equipped with excited delirium survival kits, designed to stop brains from hitting the griddle.

The new protocol was dreamed up by Miami-Dade chief medical examiner Dr. Bruce A. Hyma — an unabashed excited delirium bible-thumper and member of the Mash-founded UM research center — and fire-rescue officials. "We discussed how we can maybe abort this cycle and somehow save some lives," Hyma says. "The long and short of it is, if we can minimize the amount of physical exertion when this whole process starts, we can mitigate the amount of overheating that leads to death."

The plan, which has been in effect since 2007: First, a police officer tases the manic subject. Next, rescue workers quickly administer a nasal hit of Versed, a knockout drug commonly used on patients before surgery. Last, the subject is injected with iced saline to keep his or her temperature down. "The key is that when one of these events occurs," Hyma says, "it [should] be recognized as a medical emergency, not as a domestic altercation or a civil disturbance."

Hyma believes Miami-Dade is the only county to have such an approach in action, although "maybe others have copied it now and are using it." Hyma offers the unverified claim that 19 of 20 manic subjects hit with the Versed-and-saline cocktail have survived. One hitch: Because they lived, there's no way to prove those survivors were suffering from excited delirium in the first place.

Hyma hopes counties across the nation soon follow Miami-Dade's lead. Then comes the day, naturally, when paramedics are equipped with Tasers. Which is further gloom and doom for the civil rights set. Amnesty International's Jared Feuer sounds fatigued when told of the innovative approach: "So, wait, they tase them and then drug them?"

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"Right in the midst there lay the body of a man sorely contorted and still twitching." —Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

It's apparent Linda Lewis misses being a mother. She attempts to gorge a reporter on soda, offers to make him lunch, and sternly advises him against speeding on his way back to Miami. Her Lantana home is a shrine with photos of her son, Donald Lewis, who lost his life at the age of 38 on the side of a road in October 2005. Every so often, she picks one up and shakes it. "Does this look like a drug addict to you?" she demands. "He could have been a model!"

The pictures display a John Mellencamp song come to life: shirtless and handsome, with an American flag tattoo on his bicep and a big, beef-eating smile.

It's clear there were two Donalds. There was the one Mom knew, the hard-working screen installer who made $40,000 a year, doted on his teenage son, and grew husky on her home-cooking.

Then there's the one police officers knew: arrested upward of 60 times on drug-possession and petty charges, one of those crackheads who swear to go clean but never do.

On October 19, 2005, Mugshot Donald won the battle for good. That's the day West Palm Beach cops found him writhing and incoherent along 45th Street, wrestled him to the ground, hogtied him, and then struggled in vain to revive him when he suddenly went limp.

A Cops TV crew captured some of his grunted final words: "The cops are killing me... Mother, I love you. Father, I love you. Jesus, I love you."

The Palm Beach medical examiner's ascribed cause of death: "sudden respiratory arrest following physical struggling restraint due to cocaine-induced excited delirium."

What's really happening in the unaired footage depends upon whom you ask. To Dr. Mash, Donald's paranoia and imperviousness to pain — he withstood chokeholds and hard knees to the back and neck from four large male police officers — would appear to be classic excited delirium. But to Linda Lewis, who forced herself to watch the video only once, those same methods used on an unarmed, handcuffed man mean something altogether different. "Excited delirium didn't kill my son," she says. "The police killed my son."

Lewis filed an excessive force suit against the City of West Palm Beach and the five officers on the scene. Dr. Michael Baden, former New York City chief medical examiner, testified that Donald had in fact died of "asphyxia caused by neck compression."

A federal judge ruled the police were protected from the lawsuit by "qualified immunity," and an Atlanta appeals court upheld the decision. This past February, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the suit without explanation.

But if excited delirium has become legal Kevlar for police departments and Taser International in wrongful death suits, a few bullets have recently pierced the vest.

In June 2008, a California jury ordered Taser to pay $6.2 million to the family of Robert Heston, who died after being stunned by Salinas Police, despite the company's defense that he had died of excited delirium. Attorney John Burton argued that the company should have known its guns could cause cardiac arrest, and issued a proper warning to police. Though the penalty was later reduced to $1 million, it was the first time Taser had lost in court.

And this May, the City of Fort Worth, Texas, paid a $2 million settlement to the family of 24-year-old Michael Patrick Jacobs, who died after being tased by cops last year. The settlement came with no admission of guilt, but an unprecedented step by Taser spoke volumes. The company issued a bulletin to police departments advising officers to avoid tasing people in the chest.

Taser spokesperson Tuttle, who maintains that his stun guns have still never been proven to be lethal, downplays that development. "The one thing we've always recommended is that the back would be a great shot because there's more nervous tissues and more muscles back there. We're going to have more problems if people aren't using it where we recommend it for maximum effectiveness."

The courtroom batterings of Taser and excited delirium do nothing for Linda Lewis, who has begged for "just an apology" from the officers involved in her son's death. There is no further recourse in her lawsuit against the City of West Palm Beach. Says her attorney, Ronald Kurpiers: "The police literally got away with murder."

Stunning the public into submission

May 11, 2010
Heidi Boghosian, Huffington Post

Ask the pregnant woman who refused to sign a traffic ticket. She'll confirm: it's more convenient for police to discharge a Taser than to negotiate verbally or use other problem-solving strategies when dealing with the public. A 58-year-old homeless woman with a mental illness in Vermont will tell a similar story. Her crime was refusing to move from where she was standing outside a local convenience store.

Abuse of electroshock weapons is commonplace when individuals are slow to follow orders or "cop an attitude." The teenage baseball fan in Philadelphia learned this the painful way. Each time police discharge Tasers when no threat to human life exists, they breach norms for the use of force. Force should be used only where "strictly necessary" and in proportion to the threat posted, according to the United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials. The Police Executive Research Forum advises that stun guns should only be directed at persons actively exhibiting aggression. And the UN Committee Against Torture has called use of the Taser X26 a form of torture because of the degree of pain the weapon inflicts.

In addition to being the state where the baseball fan was shocked, Pennsylvania hosted the debut of military sonic weapons against civilian protesters at the 2009 G-20 Summit. Known as Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs), these weapons have been used to disperse crowds in Iraq and repel pirates in the Gulf of Aden. They are more insidious than other so called less-lethal munitions because they leave no visible marks and can cause permanent hearing loss. While LRADs are relatively new in the United States, Tasers, rubber bullets and other potentially lethal weapons are altogether too readily used by law enforcement on civilians.

Statistics detailing the harm that Tasers cause might help curb their use. But accurate statistics do not exist. That is in part because medical examiners across the country are afraid of retribution by Taser International, the leading manufacturer of Tasers. The corporation has sued several medical examiners for listing their products as either contributing to or as being the official cause of death.

Coroners may, however, log deaths from Taser-related incidents in the National Association of Medical Examiners' "Death Registry" database in order to assist the National Institute of Justice identify deaths in which electric stun guns were used. This is just a start. The public should express outrage at the increasing use of electro-muscular disruption technology by law enforcement against civilians in any situation other than life-threatening ones.

EDITORIAL: Police and Tasers

May 10, 2010
Washington Post

TASERS, IN USE by police departments for more than a decade, are meant to be a weapon of last resort against dangerous suspects who pose a serious threat to police officers or a risk of flight. They are also supposed to subdue suspects, not kill them. But in too many cases, including at least one recent incident in Arlington County, suspects have died after being Tasered. And there is disturbing evidence nationwide that police officers are using them when less drastic, and less potentially deadly, measures would suffice.

Police routinely insist they fire stun guns only in dire situations, and most of the time no eyewitnesses materialize to contradict them. But for an object lesson in Taser misuse -- and a clue as to how itchy-fingered police officers can be -- look no farther than the outfield of Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, where the Phillies hosted the Cardinals last Monday before 45,000 witnesses. What they saw was a scrawny, unarmed teenager who jumped on the field and ran figure eights around huffing and puffing security and police officers. After a few seconds of this, a Philadelphia police officer took aim with his Taser and dropped the youth in pop-fly territory. As he lay face down on the grass, the crowd booed the police lustily -- and with good reason.

Fans who disrupt games should be prosecuted and fined and possibly face jail time; they should not be Tasered unless they appear violent or pose a threat more serious than disrupting a game. Still, the Philadelphia police commissioner, Charles Ramsey, who reviewed video of the incident, said his officer had acted within department guidelines. That's the problem. While Tasers have been useful in protecting officers from dangerous and out-of-control suspects, in too many police agencies the policy on using them is so loosely defined that officers can fire the weapons more or less when they feel like it.

Amnesty International, which has conducted detailed studies of the use of Taser guns, concluded that in about 90 percent of cases involving Tasers, the weapons were used on unarmed suspects. In many of those cases, the suspects may have been disrespectful, strange or defiant but seemed to pose little danger to themselves, others or police.

Most disturbingly, Amnesty found that 334 people had died after being Tasered between 2001 and 2008. And while most of the deaths were attributed to drug and alcohol intoxication, medical examiners and coroners found that Taser shocks caused or may have contributed to at least 50 deaths in that period. Based on that, and numerous studies suggesting that Tasers can have lethal effects on some people, Amnesty has called for a halt to the use of stun guns.

Unsurprisingly, Taser International, a 17-year-old firm based in Arizona, has disputed the studies and Amnesty's conclusions. But if police and the weapons' manufacturers want to avoid a public backlash, they'd be wise to tighten rules to preclude using the weapons on suspects who may be annoying or disruptive but ultimately pose no threat of harm.

British Columbia's coroner system questioned by forensic pathologist

May 6, 2010
By Carlito Pablo, The Georgia Straight

Forensic pathologist John Butt wants B.C. to introduce a medical examiner system; currently, the chief coroner isn’t required to have a medical background.
A renowned forensic pathologist says B.C. should change its system for investigating sudden deaths.

John Butt is recommending a shift from the current coroner setup to a medical examiner system, which is used in a number of other provinces, namely Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

“In the investigation of sudden death, there are five questions that have to be answered,” Butt explained to the Georgia Straight in a phone interview. “The question that carries the greatest responsibility and is commonest and costs the most money is the question ‘Why?’, which is the medical cause of death.”

Butt is a former chief medical examiner for Alberta and Nova Scotia. He now works in Vancouver as a private consultant in forensic medicine, and specializes in providing expert testimony.

B.C.’s Coroners Act doesn’t require the chief coroner to have a medical background. For almost 30 years, between 1981 and 2010, the post was held by ex–police officers. Robert Galbraith was followed by Vincent Cain; Larry Campbell, who later became Vancouver mayor and is now a Liberal senator; and Terry Smith.

On April 1, Diane Rothon took over the B.C. Coroners Service, becoming the second physician to head the death investigation agency since the province’s first chief coroner, William McArthur, who held the position from 1979 to 1981.

Although Butt is pleased that the new chief coroner is a doctor, he suggested that the province consider introducing a medical examiner system.

“The medical examiner system is led, governed by an expert in forensic pathology,” he said. “That means that they have to be a forensic pathologist, not just a doctor. Just like the operating room is the tool of the surgeon, the tool of the forensic pathologist is the autopsy.”

Butt pointed out that the B.C. Coroners Service doesn’t have forensic medical expertise. As such, it contracts out autopsies to hospitals.

The Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General didn’t make Rothon or any other official available for comment. However, in a statement e-mailed to the Straight, a ministry spokesperson asserted that there is no compelling reason to switch to a medical examiner system.

Like Canada, the U.S. employs a mix of coroner and medical examiner models in different jurisdictions. However, a report released last year by the National Academy of Sciences, a Washington, D.C.–based private advisory body, recommended Congress earmark funds to set up “medical examiner systems, with the goal of replacing and eventually eliminating existing coroner systems”.

The report cited the need for unbiased death investigations in sensitive cases like police shootings and those occurring in jails, as one of the reasons for having a medical examiner. “The medical examiner is first and foremost a physician, whose education, training, and experience is in the application of the body of medicine to situations that have a legal dimension that must be answered by a practitioner of medicine,” the document states.

For many years in B.C., deaths in police custody were automatically subject to coroners’ inquests. However, in March of this year, the provincial government passed legislation giving the chief coroner the discretion to waive inquests in these cases, a move that civil-liberties advocates like lawyer Cameron Ward argue will weaken police accountability.

How this new legislation will be implemented is one of the issues the B.C. Civil Liberties Association intends to raise with Rothon in a meeting scheduled for June 1, BCCLA executive director David Eby told the Straight.

EDITORIAL: Our Opinion: Judgment called into question

April 25, 2010
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER

The duties of the county coroner, as expressed in the Illinois Coroners and Medical Examiners Association’s creed, are straightforward:

“The ancient office of Coroner, or the modern office of Medical Examiner, along with the state-licensed physician is legally charged with significant duties in answering the pertinent questions relating to death: Who, Where, When, What, How, Why. Only when these questions have been answered correctly, can all the proper legal issues arising at death be effectively handled for the proper administration of justice.”

Less poetically stated, the coroner’s job is to establish the official record for deaths in a county and record accurate information on them.

Yet over the years Sangamon County Coroner Susan Boone’s office has exercised questionable judgment that has seemed to contradict that mission.

**SNIP**

* March 2010: Patrick Burns, 50, had died in January after struggling with four sheriff’s deputies. He had broken into a neighbor’s home, beat a woman inside and was subdued only after officers used Taser stun guns 21 times on him. Cocaine, marijuana, Wellbutrin and Prozac were in his system at the time, and he was hog-tied while transported to the hospital. During the inquest, Boone lectured the Burns family on the dangers of cocaine use.

“I can’t stress this enough: One time using cocaine will kill you,” said Boone, who advocated that the jury cite excited delirium from cocaine as the official cause of death. The jury ruled the cause was undetermined.

* April 2010: Boone said that she sometimes removes statements from official transcripts of inquests. In the Burns case, she removed her own statements to the inquest jury in which she praised Bowman — who had been criticized by members of the Burns family. She said she sometimes removes statements that “could be hurtful to the family” of the deceased. She claimed transcripts from proceedings in courts of law were similarly edited. In fact, anything said to a jury in a court proceeding is on the record and becomes part of the official transcript.

Use of 'nonlethal' force may be a factor in many deaths

April 25, 2010
By Meg Laughlin, St. Petersburg Times

On a balmy fall night, two police officers in a squad car in east Bradenton spotted a man on a bicycle without a headlight.

Derrick Humbert, 38, rode a bike around town because seizures from a head injury prevented him from driving. He worked odd jobs as a short-order cook and gardener. He took care of his three kids, 2, 8 and 11, while their mother worked the evening shift at a 7-Eleven.

On this Monday in late September, he was riding home from a convenience store just after midnight when police told him to stop.

Instead, he pedaled around a corner past three houses, jumped off the bike and ran into a yard, the two officers chasing him on foot.

It is not clear why Humbert fled. Police later said that they wanted to stop him because it was a high-crime area, though Humbert was not wanted in connection with any crime. Only later would they learn that he had a misdemeanor conviction for marijuana possession, with unpaid fines.

Officer Del Shiflett yelled that he was firing his Taser. Humbert, who was hard of hearing, scrambled over a 4-foot chain-link fence and made it into a second yard. One probe hit Humbert's left shoulder, the other went in his lower back. Hit with 50,000 volts of electricity, he fell facedown in the dirt. Twenty-eight minutes later, he was in a deep coma in an ambulance on the way to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Derrick Humbert was the 55th person to die in Florida after being shot by a Taser in the past decade. His death tied Florida with California for the most Taser-associated deaths in the nation. (Now, Florida stands alone in first place, with 57 deaths.) Humbert's death put the case at the center of a national Taser debate, which pits the increasing popularity of the weapon against mounting evidence of its risks.

But as the Humbert case shows, police depend on the Taser so much that in some cases they may overlook evidence that it may be doing harm.

• • •

The Taser, invented by a NASA scientist in 1974, got its name from a science fiction book called Tom Swift and his Electric Rifle. When fired, the X-26 Taser, the model used by Bradenton police, propels two small darts connected to copper wires over 20 feet. The darts embed in the skin and shock with 50,000 volts of electricity, causing the recipient severe muscle contractions and temporary paralysis. Police officers in training exercises describe it as "excruciatingly painful."

By 2000, Taser International, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., was filling large orders for Tasers, which the company described as "the first nonlethal weapon capable of stopping aggressive, focused or drug-impaired persons." Not only did it stop people who were a danger to the public, police and themselves, it cut down on deaths of suspects and injuries to police officers. The conventional wisdom, repeated in Taser International training exercises, was "Taser early, Taser often."

At a 2004 Taser conference in Las Vegas for police officers, Mike Brave, a lawyer for Taser International, told the group: "We have to get across in people's minds that the Taser is incredibly effective, but does not cause injury."

His conclusion: "Taser saves lives, careers and money."

Last year, Taser International took in $104 million in revenue, with more than 15,000 public safety agencies in 40 countries using the Taser, its company website says.

But there is a downside.

In 2005, the U.S. Department of Defense looked at Taser effects and said more research was needed on "those with underlying heart conditions and drug users." That same year, Amnesty International looked at 61 deaths after Taser use and said that "many of those who died had underlying heart problems."

The ACLU of Northern California said in a Taser report in 2005: "Certainly the failure of many in law enforcement to ask tough questions about Taser is partly to blame. But Taser International is also responsible because its questionable marketing practices and exaggerated safety claims provide the basis for local police policy."

At a national conference of police officers in June 2008, the National Institute of Justice, which is part of the U.S. Department of Justice, published an interim report on Tasers that reflected both sides of the controversy: "Studies undertaken by law enforcement agencies indicate reduced injuries to officers and suspects. … However, a significant number of individuals have died after exposure (to a Taser). Some were normal healthy adults; others were chemically dependent or had heart disease."

In October 2009, the Arizona Republic said the Taser was a cause, a factor, or could not be ruled out, in 30 deaths.

Which takes us back to Derrick Humbert: Did the Taser play a role in his death? And did the department, which tends to be pro-Taser like most U.S. law enforcement agencies, look objectively at information to answer this question?

Bradenton Police Department spokesman Jeffrey Lewis declined to answer questions. Look at the internal investigation, he said.

"The work speaks for itself."

• • •

The investigation began a few hours after Humbert's death. Lt. Warren Merriman, head of the department's Office of Professional Standards, interviewed nine officers on video. But first the watch commander that night, Sgt. Charles McCrea, told some of them what he thought.

As he spoke in the hallway, a recorder in the interview room picked up his words:

"He (Humbert) is a doper. I'm putting it on the dope. I was on the verge of having a cardiac event and my heart wasn't that high. That kills me about the Taser thing because I don't see the Taser being involved. Without it, none of us would be here. I pop him with 10,000 volts or something with an aneurysm. Why's your heart going to go bappa, bappa, bappa, bap if it's not full of dope? You follow me?

"It (the Taser) is not deadly, but you know there's a controversy nationally."

That same day, Deputy Chief William Tokajer talked to the Humbert family about Humbert's death. Humbert's sister, Christina Humbert Sutton, an elementary school athletic coach, put him on speaker phone so that Humbert's three other sisters, his aunt and brother-in-law could also hear.

According to the six, Tokajer told them that Humbert was in such good shape after being shot with the Taser that he walked to the ambulance. They say Tokajer told them their brother was still up and talking at 12:45 a.m., which was 26 minutes after being hit with the Taser.

A few weeks later, police Chief Mike Radzilowski supported Tokajer in a conversation with the St. Petersburg Times.

"Derrick Humbert was fine after the Taser," said the chief. "EMS took him to the hospital to make sure there weren't any medical problems."

Witnesses, none of whom were interviewed by police, told the Times a different story.

"I heard the Taser. Then I heard the guy gasping and groaning. He sounded bad from the time he was tased till they picked him up and put him on a stretcher and put him in the ambulance," said Dequan Siplin, 11, an honor roll student at Bradenton River Middle School. His open bedroom window was about 20 feet from where Humbert was shot with the Taser.

" 'My chest is hurting. I'm dying. I can't breathe.' That's what Humbert told police," said Horatio Papillon, 40, whose yard Humbert ran through. "He wasn't walking around, talking like everything was okay. He was gasping for air when he said it."

Melinda Corona, 23, watched from a window across the street as Humbert dumped the bike, ran through a gate and into two yards, a total of about 50 to 60 feet. After Humbert was struck with the Taser, Corona walked out of the house to see and hear better.

According to Corona, the officer who fired the Taser asked Humbert: "Why are you breathing so hard when you didn't run any farther than I did?"

"Humbert was wheezing and begging for help," said Corona. "I have asthma and he sounded like me when I have an asthma attack."

Two police officers helped Humbert to a squad car. When two others tried to help him out of the car, Humbert fell on the pavement, said Corona.

"He couldn't stand. He was bad. They lifted him onto a stretcher and put him in an ambulance," she said.

The reports from Emergency Medical Services support what the neighbors say.

They show Humbert in crisis. His pulse was over 200 beats per minute — alarmingly high. It decreased over the next 20 minutes until he died. His breathing in the ambulance was so labored he needed oxygen and a pump-bag to breathe.

Capt. Larry Leinhauser of the Manatee County Public Safety Department, which oversees Bradenton EMS: "We rarely have serious implications from Tasers. But you look at the record here and have to believe the Taser could be a contributing factor, for sure."

The videotaped interviews of the officers also confirm what the EMS time line and the witnesses said.

Four police officers give versions like Corona's: Humbert ran 50 to 60 feet, not multiple blocks. The officers give a more detailed picture of his physical distress than the report summary.

"Was he having trouble with balance?" the interviewer asked Del Shiflett, who shot the Taser.

"Yes," said Shiflett.

From Officer Chris Roden's video interview: "I handcuffed him lying on the ground. He was conscious, talking, saying, 'I can't breathe.' "

From Officer Timothy Gunst's video interview: "The suspect said he gets seizures. I called EMS. We walked him out to the street. He was really sweaty. He kept saying, 'It's hard for me to breathe.' "

From Officer Leonel Marines' video interview: "He says, 'I'm hurtin' really bad.' He says, 'I can't breathe. It feels like I'm dying.' "

But the report from police, which the medical examiner read before determining the cause of death, excluded these details from the rescue workers and the police.

Manatee County Deputy Medical Examiner William Broussard, Jr. issued his findings about the cause of death in mid December. His report does not mention that Humbert was having problems breathing, complaining of pain in his chest or saying he was dying. Instead, the autopsy report described Humbert as "alert and oriented following the (Taser) deployment."

"We didn't see the video interviews. We read summaries provided by the Bradenton Police Department, which is the usual procedure," said Manatee County Chief Medical Examiner Russell Vega.

The autopsy report noted that Humbert had underlying heart disease exacerbated by "running multiple blocks." And, he had 57 nanograms of cocaine in his system.

The deputy medical examiner concluded that because of Humbert's "apparent recovery after the deployment of the electronic control device" that there was "no evidence that the electronic control device (Taser) played any role in causing the death."

The cause of death, according to the autopsy report: "Acute cocaine toxicity and hypertensive and atherosclerotic heart disease."

Experts asked by the Times to review this report expressed varying levels of skepticism about its conclusions.

Dr. Joseph Saady, chief toxicologist for the state of Virginia until 2009, agreed to talk about the case. Saady said he found the cause of death "odd" because the cocaine level was so low.

"To have acute cocaine toxicity, which means an overdose, you expect to see in excess of 1,000 nanograms of cocaine. Fifty-seven nanograms is not consistent with acute cocaine toxicity."

Vega conceded that the cocaine level was "relatively low," but said that along with the heart disease and exertion it probably had an effect.

Tampa cardiologist Joel Strom looked at the EMS records, information from the video interviews of police and the autopsy report and offered an opinion:

"There are so many ingredients here — underlying heart disease, a small amount of cocaine. He didn't run far but the adrenaline was probably pumping because he was running from police. Add to all of this the Taser, which probably triggered the cardiac event that led to his death. It's far-fetched to exclude the Taser from playing any role at all."

Tampa cardiac electro­physiologist Bengt Herweg, who runs the Florida Heart Rhythm Institute: "Excluding the Taser entirely as a contributor to Humbert's death raises questions about objectivity."

Vega offered this: "I wish we knew more about Tasers. I can't say the Taser could not have played a role. Might Humbert have survived without the Taser? It's possible."

But would the autopsy report change?

"It's unlikely," Vega said.

• • •

Earlier this year, a federal appeals court in California ruled in favor of a man who had been shot with a Taser and injured. When the man was stopped by police for not wearing a seat belt, he got out of the car, stood about 20 feet away and hit his own thighs because he was angry at himself. The officer fired his Taser.

The appellate panel said that the use of the Taser was excessive because the man wasn't "an immediate threat to the officer or others." The level of the offense should also be considered when weighing whether someone is a danger, the court said.

In Humbert's situation, no light on his bike wasn't a reason to arrest him, but ignoring a lawful order to stop was. In his video interview, Shiflett, who fired the Taser, said he tried to stop Humbert because sometimes such stops "deter drug crimes or burglary in a high-crime area."

The problem with using the Taser when Humbert fled was that Shiflett had no way of knowing he had an underlying heart problem and cocaine in his system, which made him especially vulnerable to a Taser.

Because it's impossible to spot these vulnerabilities, the Department of Justice with the Police Executive Research Forum published a report a few years ago with this recommendation: "That a subject is fleeing should not be the sole justification for police use of (a Taser). Severity of offense and other circumstances should be considered before officers' use (of a Taser) on the fleeing subject."

Steve Tuttle, communications director for Taser International, says the company has no opinion on these recommendations: "We don't get involved with the guidelines that individual agencies adopt," he said.

The Bradenton Police Department, like most police agencies across the country, has yet to incorporate these recommendations into its policy.

British Columbia government wants Taser legal challenge of inquiry results tossed

April 11, 2010
By James Keller, The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Taser International's fight to quash a public inquiry report that concluded the controversial weapons can kill lands in a Vancouver courtroom on Monday.

The British Columbia government will ask the court to toss the weapon manufacturer's legal challenge of the findings from commissioner Thomas Braidwood's report from the first phase of a public inquiry prompted by the death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver's airport.

The 550-page report released last year found that a jolt from a Taser could be fatal, and the weapons' use should be restricted.

Arizona-based Taser, which has a long history of litigation against any suggestion the stun guns are unsafe, responded with a blistering legal challenge alleging bias on the part of Braidwood, the inquiry's lead lawyer and a medical expert involved with the proceedings.

The province has now filed its own equally biting reply, calling Taser's petition "offensive and abusive."

"The only evidence of any bias is that the petitioner (Taser) says the conclusion is wrong," the province said in a document filed with the B.C. court.

"That is, the petitioner believes that the case that the Taser is harmless is so overwhelming that the commissioner's contrary findings themselves give rise 'to a reasonable apprehension of bias.' This is an extraordinary attempt to use judicial review to conduct a collateral attack."

Monday's hearing will deal with the government's motion to dismiss the legal challenge.

The B.C. government ordered a two-part public inquiry after Dziekanski's death in October 2007.

RCMP were summoned after the would-be immigrant became agitated and began throwing furniture in the arrivals area of the airport. He was confronted by four officers and stunned multiple times with a Taser.

The first phase of the inquiry was held in 2008, when Braidwood examined Taser use in general by law enforcement agencies in British Columbia.

While his report from that phase raised concerns about Tasers and recommended changes to how they're used, Braidwood also said they are a necessary tool for police.

The commissioner then undertook months of hearings last year examining Dziekanski's death specifically, and a final report from that phase is expected to be made public by the summer.

Last August, Taser filed a petition with the B.C. Supreme Court asking that Braidwood's first report be thrown out and that he be prevented from using any of his findings - which include that Tasers can kill - in his report into Dziekanski's death.

The petition alleged Braidwood made conclusions that weren't supported by the evidence, and that Taser was denied the right to fully participate.

"Was the process by which that conclusion was reached a fair one? We say it was not," Taser's lawyer, David Neave, said in an interview.

"The company is concerned that the principles of fairness were not followed."

The B.C. government contends Taser had no legal right to participate, but was nonetheless given "extraordinary" involvement as a courtesy.

Furthermore, the province argues Braidwood's report can't be subject to judicial review because the first phase of the inquiry was a "study commission" the role of which was to make policy recommendations to the government, not to determine facts or assign blame.

"Taser was afforded every opportunity to make submissions to the study commission," the province's said in a court filings for the pending case.

"What Taser cannot do is control the way the submissions are weighted and assessed."

It's not clear how much difference the case will make to how the weapons are used in Canada, regardless of whether the report's conclusions are thrown out or allowed to stand.

The RCMP has already significantly restricted its policies on how the weapons should be used, and the B.C. government has adopted all of Braidwood's recommendations.

But Taser has a long history of aggressively defending its weapons in court.

Last year, the company sent out a news release boasting it had successfully won its 100th dismissal of a liability lawsuit, however, the company cannot claim a perfect legal record. In 2008 a California jury ruled the weapon was at least partially responsible for the death of a man who died in police custody.

The company is quick to contact media organizations about stories on deaths that may be linked to use of their weapons, and when a state medical examiner in Ohio ruled that three men's deaths were in part caused by the effects of Tasers, the company sued.

Taser eventually won, and in May 2008 a judge ordered the medical examiner to delete any references in the autopsy findings that suggested the stun guns were to blame.

No knowing how many times Taser made contact with man, inquest told

It's like a re-run. Same old dog and pony show - the taser fan club song and dance at the coroner's inquest has become the norm. Tell me, when will we hear from Christine Hall, excited-delirium expert extraordinaire?

I suppose it would be too much to hope that the sudden "intermission" in this coroner's inquest will give this corrupt process a chance to have some oversight through the newly announced STRONGER, MORE ACCOUNTABLE CORONER SYSTEM IN ONTARIO, which promises:

The establishment of an oversight council for Ontario's death investigation system
An improved complaints system under the oversight council
The establishment of an Ontario Forensic Pathology Service
A registry of pathologists authorized to conduct coroner's autopsies in Ontario
Improved death investigation services to northern and First Nations communities.

May 29, 2009
Posted By KARENA WALTER, St. Catharine's Standard

The police Taser used in a confrontation with James Foldi was discharged 12 times, but there is no way of knowing from the device how often it made contact with his body.

A coroner’s inquest was told Friday the Taser was activated over a period of three minutes and five seconds as Foldi ran from and struggled with police in a Beamsville neighbourhood.

The 39-year-old, who lived in the neighbourhood, died July 1, 2005, after a bizarre night of breaking into houses, calling for help and at one point jumping through a window.

A pathologist ruled his death was caused by excited delirium brought on by acute cocaine poisoning.

It will be up to a jury to make the final determination. Coroner’s inquests are mandatory when someone dies in police custody.

The Foldi inquest was supposed to continue next week, but because of a scheduling problem will continue at a later, undetermined date. The last witness was giving testimony Friday when the inquest broke for the day.

Chris Lawrence from the Canadian Police Research Centre, an expert in use of force and excited delirium, prepared a report that said police actions in the Foldi case were consistent with prudent practises.

Backing away from Foldi instead of arresting him may not have been the best option for officers because he was bleeding, Lawrence said.

“Waiting may not be in his best interest. It’s a very hard call to make.”

Lawrence presented downloaded information from the Taser used on Foldi that morning.

He told the jury Tasers are one of the few weapons that record data, such as how long it was used and when, but it cannot determine whether it made contact.

Niagara Regional Police Sgt. Richard Ciszek testified earlier in the week that he deployed the Taser twice in the probe mode when Foldi was running. He applied the Taser, set on stun mode, five times to Foldi’s calves and thighs while Foldi was struggling with officers on the ground between a garage and fence.

Ciszek, who was holding Foldi’s ankles while other officers tried to handcuff him, said he also discharged the Taser in the air to see if it was working, because it didn’t seem to have an effect.

The other four discharges have been unaccounted.

Lawrence said Friday that it’s been well-documented that while an officer is gripping a subject with one hand and a Taser in the other, he or she can inadvertently pull the trigger without touching the person.

During the time Foldi was on the ground, the Taser was discharged over a 97-second period and was only off for 13 seconds.

Jurors heard earlier in the week from the other three officers who were involved in the struggle with Foldi on the ground. One officer heard the Taser go off once and the other two officers didn’t hear it at all.

Lawrence testified that as circumstances become more intense for officers and their concern about the outcome more pertinent and focused, it’s possible for them to block out information around them.

There are a number of incidents in which officers didn’t hear a gun fire next to them or even hear their own gun, he said.

“One person can be on the legs, another at the waist and one officer doesn’t see the other there.”

A Stronger, More Accountable Coroners System in Ontario

TORONTO, May 28 /CNW/ - NEWS

Ontario will soon have a more responsive, more accountable death investigation system in Ontario with the passage today of the Coroners Amendment Act, 2009. Passed today by the Ontario legislature, the Coroners Amendment Act, 2009, addresses the recommended legislative amendments in the report of the Honourable Justice Stephen Goudge's Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology in Ontario. When the new law comes into effect following royal assent, it will establish a framework to strengthen the death investigation system in Ontario.

Provisions of the new legislation include:
- The establishment of an oversight council for Ontario's death investigation system
- An improved complaints system under the oversight council
- The establishment of an Ontario Forensic Pathology Service
- A registry of pathologists authorized to conduct coroner's autopsies in Ontario
- Improved death investigation services to northern and First Nations communities.

QUOTES
"We have acted swiftly to deliver on our commitment to strengthen the province's death investigation system. The new legislation ensures we have the necessary checks and balances in place to ensure high quality death investigations that contribute to the safety of all Ontarians."
- Rick Bartolucci
(http://www.mcscs.jus.gov.on.ca/english/about_min/bio/bio.html), Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services

"This legislation gives us the framework to build on the work we've already done to strengthen the system to ensure that the people of Ontario have confidence and trust in our system."
- Dr. Andrew McCallum(www.mcscs.jus.gov.on.ca/english/pub_safety/office_coroner/chief_coroner.html), Ontario's Chief Coroner

"The new law recognizes the importance of a professional forensic pathology service. We can now take the next steps towards delivering the consistent high quality service the people of Ontario deserve."
- Dr. Michael Pollanen, Ontario's Chief Forensic Pathologist

QUICK FACTS
- Ontario's coroners investigate approximately 20,000 deaths every year.
- Approximately 7,000 of those investigations require a post-mortem examination by a pathologist.
- The Coroners Act has not been significantly updated since the 1970s.

LEARN MORE
Learn more about Ontario's coroners
(http://webx.newswire.ca/click/?id=ffd15b98cfae243).
Read Justice Goudge's report and recommendations
(http://www.goudgeinquiry.ca/).

Family of dead man sues city, police over Taser shots

#327. February 7, 2008: Richard Earl Abston, 53, Merced, California

March 31, 2009
Merced Sun Star

"... The lawsuit doesn't name Taser International, but (attorney) Nisenbaum believes the device played a role in Abston's death, even though the autopsy doesn't list it as a contributing factor ... The MEDICAL REPORT WASN'T FINISHED UNTIL THE CORONER MET WITH A DOCTOR WHO SERVES ON THE COMPANY'S [Taser International's] SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD, he noted."

See also "Judge rules for taser in cause of death decisions."

Taser death: Taser International guilty as charged

December 23, 2008
By Jane Mundy, lawyersandsettlements.com

Salinas, CA: Robert Heston senior won his lawsuit against Taser International, but at a terrible cost. "I have a picture of my son under the Christmas tree and I miss him," says Mr. Heston, whose son was Tasered to death in 2005. "It is hard on all of us this time of year—we are a close family. You always think you are going first but when the kids go it takes a toll on you." And Mr. Heston has been in the hospital with heart problems on several occasions--he thinks it stems from anxiety over his son's death.

Mr. Heston remembers vividly that horrific day when his son—also named Robert—was Tasered repeatedly; Mr. Heston says his son was tasered about 30 times. "I guess the police kept doing it because they thought they didn't have full control over Robert—they couldn't handcuff him. But Robert couldn't put his hands up because he couldn't move." Mr. Heston explains that the police officers tried to pry Robert's hands from under his torso to handcuff him but he was paralyzed—so they Tasered him some more!

"The cops got off scott free," says Mr. Heston. "We lost the case against the cops but won against Taser. Policies need to be changed about Tasers; when they first came out the police had no idea what they could do to people because it was put on the market by Taser International as non-lethal, but we all know that isn't true now, after the fact."

"Losing Robert was devastating," says Mr. Heston's son-in-law, Kirk Kasner. "Since Robert's death I have done a fair amount of research and in my opinion, most law enforcement is not trained sufficiently—police officers get far more firearms training than they do Taser training. They have a preconceived notion the Taser is safe; they think Tasering someone repeatedly is harmless."

Kasner believes Taser International has downplayed the hazards and he questions their studies, mainly because a new product should be tested to failure—i.e., under what circumstances will it fail and how does it fail, not by testing a product to prove it is safe, as the weapons company has done.

The Court Case

Kasner says the case against Taser International was successful because the Heston family had exceptionally competent counsel—attorneys John Burton and Peter Williamson--and the jury pool was another reason. The San Jose area is a technology hub and the jurors had a good grasp of the technology—initially there were 3 engineers. A lot of the case concerned the product liability issues. "When it came right down to it, Taser had not been forthcoming with the true safety concerns of the weapon and they downplayed it to the police officers," Kasner explains. "And I believe if law enforcement had greater respect for the equipment and were more conservative with their applications, there would be fewer fatalities."

At the same time, Kasner believes Tasers do have a place within law enforcement; in the right setting there is potential. "But police officers are trained based on Taser's information and if that information is false, the snowball runs downhill," he says. "Taser is the root of training and policy and the police departments use their policies."

But their policies left the company open on liability issues and that is the main reason why the Heston family won the case.

"Taser claimed you could shoot each other with a Taser all day long but my brother-in-law died before the last discharge from the Taser was cycled (started and stopped)," says Kasner. "The trigger was pulled, my brother-in-law was shot with another 50,000 volts and it is possible, given that 3 officers were firing, that he was shot with 150,000 volts at the same time. Our lawyers have a chart that shows the cycling of the weapons which clearly shows the minute the first weapon was discharged and the last minute, and the sequence in the timeline of the event.

I can't find any fault in the jury, even though they acquitted the police officers; they stepped in and represented the community. But they found Taser International guilty.

What bothered me most throughout the proceedings was that there has been more response form other countries on this Taser issue than there has been from the US and our legislature. Look at the Canadian media—they are pursuing Taser aggressively and there are public inquiries. In the US, I think Taser has sold its story so well that we believe it. And many Americans see people who are Tasered to death as addicts and drunks—they are invisible to society. The only people who give a damn are the family members.

Taser has developed this Teflon image that nothing bad is going to stick to them—they sue coroners and medical examiners, they sue researchers that make findings contrary to their claims; they do personal litigation against individuals.

If not for my father-in-law pursuing this lawsuit, eventually somebody else would beat Taser. All he wants is justice. Nobody apologized from what happened that day, except at the end of the court case. The police officers gave condolences, but Taser said 'obviously we disagree with the ruling'…"

Coroner: Inmate´s Death Caused by Taser

September 24, 2005
WIS-TV

Lancaster - The Lancaster County Coroner says a 29-year-old inmate at the county jail died as a result of a being stunned twice by a Taser in a scuffle with detention officers. Lancaster County Coroner Mike Morris says a pathologist's report showed that Maury Cunningham died July 23rd from cardiac arrhythmia as a result of electrical shock by a Taser weapon. Incident reports say Cunningham stabbed two of the officers in the face with pencils. Morris says a toxicology analysis released by the Medical University of South Carolina showed no evidence of drugs or alcohol in Cunningham's body. The State Law Enforcement Division is investigating the death.

Veteran pathologist says he believes tasers can contribute to sudden death

May 21, 2008
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — There are no obvious features on a body to indicate to a pathologist that a Taser has directly caused a death, a former chief coroner told a B.C. public inquiry Wednesday.

But Dr. John Butt, who was the former chief coroner in Alberta and the chief medical examiner in Nova Scotia, said he believes Tasers can contribute to a sudden death. "There is no specific pathology related to death by Taser," Butt told the inquiry into Taser use.

He told retired judge Thomas Braidwood that when the anatomical cause of death is elusive, a pathologist must turn to so-called "proximate" events, such as intoxication from alcohol or cocaine, heart disease, or the force involved in the takedown by police.

"Often there is no hard-core, pathological information from the autopsy," Butt told reporters after he delivered his submission. In terms of what you see with your naked eye, nothing there."

He was reminded that Taser International's opinion of its stun gun is that it does not kill.

Butt noted the company says the weapon doesn't kill "directly." "But when you have a pre-existing cardiac condition and you deploy the Taser and the death occurs instantly, then I don't think it's an easy thing to dodge the responsibility."

Butt told the inquiry that he took it upon himself last year to try to become an expert in Tasers and has read on the subject widely. He said his research suggests Tasers are being used about 600 times a day in North America. "I would have concerns about the number of times it's deployed knowing that some of the rules for engagement are not sound."

The inquiry has already heard that police forces in B.C. don't have a uniform policy on Taser use and the training regimen varies from force to force, as do policies surrounding its deployment.

"The issue is rules of engagement," said Butt. "What are they? Are they the same for the Vancouver police department as they are for the RCMP?

"Have they been looked at as an ethical concern? I think one would want to look at them as an ethical concern knowing that there have been issues of sudden death associated with them."

Butt also expressed concern about the widespread marketing of the weapon, noting that it is being bought not only by more and more police forces but also by citizens for personal protection.

The inquiry heard Tuesday that the New Westminster police department has 20 Tasers and informs its trainees that injury or death could result. But it also provides no first-aid or cardiopulmonary resuscitation training.

Butt suggested that issue would come up in the second part of the Braidwood inquiry, which will look at Tasers and their connection in the death last fall of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver airport. Dziekanski had spent many hours in the airport and was agitated and throwing things. When four RCMP officers arrived to deal with him, he appeared confused and agitated. He was hit with a Taser almost immediately after police arrived and died shortly afterwards.

"I think you're going to hear a lot in the second part of the inquiry," said Butt. "I join with most of the people that they are very happy there is a video to look at (of Dziekanski' death) and I join most people in their concern if police don't have proper training in CPR."

Special prosecutor to review ruling in Summit jail death

May 15, 2008
By Ed Meyer, Beacon Journal staff writer

Medina County Prosecutor Dean Holman was appointed today to investigate a possible appeal of a recent judge's ruling that changed the autopsy findings in the 2006 death of an inmate at the Summit County Jail.

On May 2, visiting Summit County Judge Ted Schneiderman ordered a change in the manner of death in the autopsy report on inmate Mark D. McCullaugh Jr., 28, from "homicide" to "undetermined."

Schneiderman's ruling followed a four-day trial over a civil lawsuit filed against the county medical examiner, Dr. Lisa J. Kohler, by Taser International Inc. and the city of Akron.

That suit challenged Kohler's findings that the use of a Taser stun gun was a contributing factor in the death of McCullaugh and two other unrelated deaths involving confrontations with Summit County law enforcement officers.

Five Summit sheriff's deputies are facing criminal trials in the McCullaugh case, and last week their lawyers filed a motion to dismiss all charges, directly citing Schneiderman's decision in their arguments to visiting Judge Herman F. Inderlied Jr.

A decision by Inderlied -- a retired judge from Geauga County who was appointed by the Ohio Supreme Court to handle the McCullaugh case -- is pending.

Deputy Stephen Krendick, 34, is facing the most serious charge, a single count of murder, in McCullaugh's death.

Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh asked for the appointment of Holman as special prosecutor, saying in court papers that it was being done to "avoid the appearance of impropriety or a conflict of interest."

Walsh argued that the conflict stems from Schneiderman's decision, "which goes well beyond the narrow scope" of Taser's civil suit.

The only issue in that trial, Walsh said, was whether the Taser contributed in any way to cause the three deaths.

But the broad scope of Schneiderman's ruling "orders removal of a variety of other findings, and thus ...any appeal would necessarily implicate the conduct of the involved law enforcement officers," Walsh wrote in her motion.

A spokeswoman for Walsh did not return messages seeking further comment on the possible appeal of Schneiderman's ruling.

Schneiderman, who retired from the Common Pleas bench in 2003, handles various civil and criminal cases as a visiting judge.

Summit County Common Pleas Judge Elinore Marsh Stormer, the court's administrative judge, approved Walsh's request for the special prosecutor and named Holman to handle the investigation.

Medina County Prosecutor Dean Holman was appointed today to investigate a possible appeal of a recent judge's ruling that changed the autopsy findings in the 2006 death of an inmate at the Summit County Jail.

Legal power of Taser International is cause for concern at Canadian inquests

May 11, 2008
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — An Ohio court decision ordering a state coroner to remove all reference to Tasers from autopsy results is an "appalling interference," says British Columbia's chief medical officer.

The top medical examiner in the U.S. called the court ruling last week "dangerously close to intimidation."

But officials at a public inquiry currently underway in B.C. into the use of Tasers say their investigation will continue and their conclusions will not be swayed.

Art Vertlieb, commission counsel with the inquiry, said there will be no adverse findings made in the first phase of the inquiry, which is looking at Taser use in general.

But a second phase that will look specifically at the death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver airport last fall is another matter.

"Once we get into the deal with the airport, that's going to be different. That's going to be a real inquiry in a more confrontational sense," he said.

"Under the rules in an inquiry in B.C. you can't say there's civil or criminal wrongdoing, but you can make adverse findings about people. It's right in the act."

The maker of Taser shock weapons sued the medical examiner of one Ohio county after she named the use of their stun guns as a contributing factor in three deaths in her jurisdiction.

Taser, which has an impressive line-up of lawyers on staff and a stunning legal winning streak of 68 and 0, asked the court to force the chief medical examiner to remove any reference to the use of a stun gun as a contributing factor in the deaths.

While the chief coroner of B.C. declined comment, the province's chief medical officer was blunt.

"I think this is appalling interference in transparency, in trying to find out what actually is going on," said Dr. Perry Kendall.

He could not recall similar legal cases involving Taser in Canada, but Kendall said he hoped the Ohio ruling is appealed.

"I doubt that it will stand. At least I hope it wouldn't stand."

Steve Tuttle, spokesman for Taser International, defended the company's record and vigorous defence of its product - and said the company is watching the public inquiry now underway in Vancouver.

"You can't miss it. It's getting quite a bit of coverage in Canada," he said.

The second phase of the inquiry will specifically examine the circumstances of Dziekanski's death and will be followed by a coroner's inquest.

Kent Stewart, chief coroner of Saskatchewan and chairman of the Chief Coroners and Chief Medical Examiners of Canada, says the U.S. ruling is cause for concern.

But he said coroners and medical examiners in Canada have a job to do and won't be swayed by Taser International's legal juggernaut.

"Certainly, every chief coroner and every medical examiner in Canada would be concerned," Stewart said from Regina.

"But we have to recognize that coroners and medical examiners in Canada have a legal responsibility to investigate deaths and make findings including establishing the cause of death.

"More importantly, those decisions must be fair and impartial and made without fear and bias. So that (ruling) does concern us."

The judge in the Ohio ruling was clear: "There is simply no medical, scientific, or electrical evidence to support the conclusion that the Taser X26 had anything to do with the death of (the three men)."

The judge ordered the Ohio medical examiner to change her official autopsy reports and death certificates for each of the three men.

John Manley, chief prosecutor in the case, told The Canadian Press from his Akron, Ohio, office that Taser is a formidable force in court.

"They are undefeated in terms of litigation," he said, referring to the cases, which involved wrongful death, product liability and failure-to-warn issues.

Only two of them involved findings by medical examiners, he said.

"They have plenty of money and they've got quite a large stable of expert witnesses. They are a formidable force as their record would suggest."

Taser brought in nine expert witnesses for the Ohio case, including the company CEO, cardiologists, doctors, electrophysiologists, and forensic pathologists.

Most of their experts witnesses have testified for the company in other legal challenges, said Manley.

Tuttle said Thomas Smith, the chairman of the board for Taser, will testify Monday at the Taser inquiry in Vancouver.

He was reluctant to comment on what action Taser might take in Canada if an inquiry or inquest was to make any "adverse finding" against the weapon.

"I couldn't even guess. This has only occurred twice and we've been around as a company for 14 years," he said.

The company is also awaiting a coroner's inquest into Dziekanski's death at the Vancouver airport, which will take place after the inquiry. RCMP are also investigating the incident.

"This is way too soon to be speculating on anything that we would do. (There is) an investigation (into Dziekanski) that's ongoing and we want to co-operate as much as possible," Tuttle said.

He said that there have been more than one million "applications" of Tasers on volunteers and in "field applications" and only twice have medical examiner's reports cited Tasers.

"Look at our 14-year track history and this has occurred twice... and that includes more than a million exposures to the Taser system in the field and with volunteers."

U.S. court ruling on Tasers worries Canadian doctors

May 7, 2008
CBC News

A court ruling in the United States about Tasers is causing concern in Canada's medical community. The U.S.-based manufacturer of the controversial stun guns, Taser International, has won a court order in Ohio that forces a medical examiner to change autopsy reports.

Dr. Lisa Kohler had found that electrical shocks from Tasers were partially to blame for the deaths of three men in separate confrontations with police.

Taser International launched and won a civil suit, forcing Kohler to delete any reference to the deaths being related to electric shocks, and to term them "accidental deaths."

Dr. Matthew Stanbrook of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) says the decision doesn't take into account the difficult of determining an exact cause of death in almost every case. "If we were required to have at the level of scientific and medical certainty that something was the cause of death, before we were permitted to declare it, most of the people who died in North America would have died of unknown causes," Stanbrook said. "It is a physician making their best judgment given all the facts available."

Stanbrook is deputy editor of the CMA Journal, which last week carried an editorial that expressed discontent with the current research into the effects of Taser use on suspects. The editorial said most of that work was done at the behest of Taser International and needed to be verified by independent researchers.

"New and independent research, both epidemiologic and biological, into whether Tasers can kill is essential to settle this issue," the editorial said.

Doctors and medical examiners in the United States have also expressed unease over the Ohio court decision. Dr. Jeff Jentzen of the National Association of Medical Examiners said the case could affect other autopsy results. "The physician shouldn't be threatened by individual companies attempting to preserve the reputation of their project," Jentzen said.

Taser International CEO Rick Smith told CBC News in January that medical examiners had to be sure of their facts because if they made what he called a careless opinion, they will be held accountable in court.

In submissions to the court in Ohio, Taser International said 68 wrongful-death or injury lawsuits involving Taser use have been dismissed or found in favour of the company.