The safety of tasers is questioned again

May 25, 2006
By ALEX BERENSON, New York Times

The safety of Tasers, the electric pistols that are widely used by police, is under new scrutiny after a study by a Wisconsin scientist showed that shocks from the guns cause the hearts of healthy pigs to stop beating.

The finding contradicts previous studies that showed that Taser shocks did not cause heart disturbances in pigs, whose hearts are similar to those in humans.

John G. Webster, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin who conducted the new study, said the earlier studies contained serious errors because they did not account for the fact that pigs have a thick layer of muscle insulating their hearts from their skin. Humans do not.

Dr. Webster removed the muscle from the pigs' chests and placed Taser barbs close to their hearts before shocking the animals. "The previous research made a mistake," Dr. Webster said. "I was a little surprised. But I believe this research more accurately reflects the anatomy of humans."

While most Taser shots land too far from the heart to be lethal, barbs that penetrate the spaces between the ribs that surround the heart may have the potential to cause electrocution, he said.

Steve Tuttle, a spokesman for Taser International, which makes the weapons, said Dr. Webster's research was flawed and did not reflect the way that Tasers were used in humans. The current from a Taser shock is dispersed through the body rather than running directly into the heart, Mr. Tuttle said in an e-mail statement.

The earlier studies on pigs were financed by Taser International. The Justice Department paid for Mr. Webster's study, which is not yet completed. An abstract is posted on Dr. Webster's Web site, http://www.engr.wisc.edu/bme/faculty/webster--john.html

Tasers are pistol-shaped weapons that fire barbs up to 35 feet, delivering a 50,000-volt shock. Because they propel the barbs with compressed nitrogen instead of gunpowder, Tasers are not considered firearms and are not regulated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms or any other federal agency.

Dr. Ted Chan, a professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Diego who has studied the effect of Taser shocks on human volunteers, said Mr. Webster's research did not prove that Tasers could cause lethal heart disturbances.

In his research, which is also financed by the Justice Department, Dr. Chan has shocked more than 100 people and not found any changes in heart rhythms. More sophisticated tests conducted on about a dozen people have also failed to find damage, Dr. Chan said.

"Animal studies can point in certain directions, but ultimately you have to look at humans," he said.

Dr. Chan did add that most of the volunteers he tested were not shocked directly over their hearts.

More than 150 people have died after being shocked by Tasers, according to data compiled by Amnesty International, which has called for a moratorium on use of the guns. The weapons are used by almost 10,000 police departments in the United States and internationally, as well as the military. Tasers have been used or tested on volunteers about 200,000 times, Mr. Tuttle said.

Coroners have attributed most of the deaths to causes other than the Taser shock, like cocaine overdoses. But in a handful of cases Tasers have been listed as the primary or contributing cause.

Doctors and scientists have questioned whether Tasers can cause ventricular fibrillation, a lethal heart rhythm disturbance, as well as acidosis, a dangerous change in blood chemistry. Taser International says that many of the deaths have resulted from drug overdoses and that its weapons are safer than most other ways that police officers can use to restrain people.

Since 2002, Tasers have become popular with police departments because they offer officers a way to incapacitate people without having to touch them and because most people do not appear to suffer long-term injury after being shocked. Concerns about safety hurt Taser sales last year, but they have picked up in 2006, with Taser International reporting $14 million in sales in the first quarter.

In October, the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit group that is dedicated to improving police tactics and strategies, recommended that officers be allowed to use the weapons only on suspects who are actively resisting arrest. Some police departments have allowed officers to use Tasers on people who are simply refusing to follow their orders.

The forum's recommendations are not binding. But police departments that do not follow them could face greater legal liability.

Dr. Webster shocked 10 anesthetized pigs with a Taser after removing the skin and muscle over their hearts. On average, the pigs suffered ventricular fibrillation when a Taser barb was placed within 0.7 inch of their heart, according to the abstract of the clinical trial posted on Dr. Webster's Web site. In humans, the heart is situated 0.4 to 2 inches under the skin, Dr. Webster said.

Ventricular fibrillation is an electrical disturbance that causes the heart to beat irregularly and be unable to pump blood. It causes death within minutes unless the heart's normal rhythm is restored.

Waterloo officer cleared in tasered man's heart attack

May 24, 2006 at 12:54 PM EDT
Globe and Mail

Toronto — A Waterloo Region police officer has been cleared of wrongdoing after using a Taser on a man who then had a heart attack.

Officers were called to the Grand River Hospital to help subdue an agitated psychiatric patient on April 12.

Ontario's Special Investigations Unit said the officer used a Taser after a patient acted in a “dangerous and violent manner” in a hospital room.

The man was immobilized, handcuffed and given a sedative, but suffered a heart attack when he was being placed on a stretcher.

The SIU said in its report that it did not explore whether the Taser caused the heart attack, but it did say the officer's use of the Taser represented reasonable force and was justifiable.

The unidentified man was released from hospital six days after the incident.

The SIU investigates all circumstances involving police and civilians which result in serious injury, sexual assault or death.

Cleveland clinic study shows that cocaine actually increases the taser safety margin

May 19, 2006
News Release from Taser International

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., May 19, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- TASER International, Inc. (Nasdaq:TASR), a market leader in advanced electronic control devices announced today that a study by the Cleveland Clinic reported a standard electrical discharge from a TASER(R) brand device does not induce ventricular fibrillation and that cocaine intoxication increases the safety margin even further.

The study used anesthetized adults pigs as animal models according to Dhanunjaya Lekkireddy, M.D., an electrophysiology fellow at the Cleveland Clinic, at the Heart Rhythm Society meeting. Five anesthetized adult pigs were infused intravenously with high-dose cocaine to study the interaction between the drug and the TASER X26's electrical current.

The study found that standard discharge from the TASER X26 did not induce ventricular fibrillation at any of the five tested body sites. The cocaine attenuated the effect of the shocks by 50% to 150% above the baseline safety margin.

The study indicates that cocaine may not cause arrhythmias and may actually protect against them in the absence of pre-existing myocardial ischemia, infarct, metabolic abnormalities or cardiomyopathy. According to Dr. Lekkireddy, the drugs appear to exert significant sodium channel blocking to increase ventricular fibrillation safety thresholds.

"A standard five-second stun gun application is unlikely to cause life-threatening arrhythmias, at least in the normal heart, irrespective of the position of application," said Dr. Lekkireddy.

"This is a ground breaking study which contradicts many speculations and popular myths about the interplay of cocaine and the electrical current of TASER technology," said Rick Smith, CEO for TASER International. "While cocaine is obviously dangerous by itself, the study found it is not an additive effect upon on the interaction with the electrical current of the TASER X26. In fact, contrary to popular myth, cocaine actually increased the safety margin by approximately 50 percent."

This study was published as an abstract and presented as a poster at the Heart Rhythm Society conference in Boston, MA today. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary as they have not yet been reviewed and published in a peer-reviewed publication. More information on the study can be found at: http://www.taser.com/savinglives.

About TASER International, Inc.

TASER International provides advanced electronic control devices for use in the law enforcement, military, private security and personal defense markets. TASER devices use proprietary technology to incapacitate dangerous, combative or high-risk subjects who pose a risk to law enforcement officers, innocent citizens or themselves in a manner that is generally recognized as a safer alternative to other uses of force. TASER technology saves lives every day, and the use of TASER devices dramatically reduces injury rates for police officers and suspects. For more information on TASER life-saving technology, contact TASER International at (800) 978-2737 or visit our website at www.TASER.com.

Winnipeg police need civilian commission: inner-city group

May 8, 2006
CBC News

A group of inner-city residents in Winnipeg is calling on municipal politicians to create a civilian police commission to oversee the work of the city's police force.

Tom Simms, co-director of the Community Education Development Association, says many people want to know how the police make decisions on policy issues.

"I don't know how policy gets formed right now," he said. "Is it the mayor that makes the policy, or is it the [city's] protection committee? Is there a sort of strategy around community police? Who and how do you go about shaping that policy?"

"Some of these questions, I think, would be a lot more clear if there was a mechanism like a police commission to do those kinds of things."

A civilian commission could also play a vital role when a member of the public has a complaint about police, Simms told CBC News Monday.

Currently, complaints about police officers in Winnipeg and on other municipal forces are handled by the Law Enforcement Review Agency (LERA), a provincially mandeated, independent body.

However, some groups have complained the LERA system takes too long and is difficult to navigate, or that it's awkward to make complaints about police misconduct to LERA's commissioner, who is a retired RCMP officer. More than half of all complaints filed with LERA last year were abandoned or withdrawn.

Coroners must be free to cite Taser use

March 24, 2006
Mercury News

Tasers may or may not cause or contribute to the deaths of hyper-tense, psychotic or drug-addicted individuals -- The evidence is inconclusive.

That's all the more reason for the coroner's offices in Santa Clara County and elsewhere to consider Tasers among the factors they study when doing autopsies. Their statistics will help scientists and guide police departments' policies on Taser use.

But to get to the truth on Tasers, coroners must be able to do their work without political interference. Their autonomy must be sacrosanct.

Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith raised red flags last week when she charged that the San Jose police had tried to pressure the coroner not to cite Tasers as a factor in deaths in custody. The police denied that's what they tried to do.

Mercury News writer Sean Webby reported the disagreement, which occurred at an apparently prickly meeting that the police requested after the coroner listed Tasers as a contributing factor in a death.

We weren't there, so we don't know whether the coroner and the sheriff's officers were too defensive or whether San Jose police officers were too pushy. Smith has not brought up the issue with San Jose Chief Rob Davis.

The case involved the death of Angel Rios, a 330-pound man who violently fought the police after a domestic dispute. In subduing him, the police used batons and pepper spray, then twice stunned him with Tasers. He died shortly afterward.

Dr. Christopher Happy, a pathologist, ruled that heart failure was the main cause of death. But he also listed the use of Tasers and pepper spray as contributory causes, along with obesity, heart disease and chronic drug abuse: Rios, 38, had cocaine in his system.

Happy acknowledged in the autopsy that there is no scientific evidence showing that Tasers cause death, so the San Jose police had reason to ask him to explain his ruling. But Happy is not alone is suspecting a link between Taser strikes and arrhythmia leading to death, especially in the presence of other danger factors. Studies cited as proving that Tasers are safe have not taken these factors into account.

The Arizona Republic reported last month that medical examiners in the United States and Canada formally cited Tasers as a cause, a contributing factor or possible factor in 27 deaths since 1999 -- out of 167 instances in which people have died after being struck by Tasers. That's about 16 percent.

Tasers, which emit 50,000 volts for five-second bursts, can be an effective means of restraint with no lasting effects. As an alternative to undeniably lethal force, such as gunfire, Tasers can save lives.

But Tasers appear to be hazardous for some high-risk individuals. Rios fit that profile. The coroner's job is to point that out and to keep records that could provide a definitive answer.

Medical examiners walk uneasy path

March 24, 2006
Jacob Quinn Sanders, The Portland Tribune

Charged with determining a cause of death for the man who died Monday after being shocked with a Portland police Taser, the Oregon state medical examiner’s office finds itself in a potentially sticky situation.

The Oregon State Police funds the office, making it the rare governmental medical authority whose budget depends on a law-enforcement agency. Former medical examiner’s office officials said that relationship can skew how doctors in the office make cause-of-death decisions in cases that involve police, who have an interest in limiting legal liability.

And medical examiners in other states said Taser International, the Arizona-based maker of the stun gun that may have contributed to Monday’s death, has in the past sued and otherwise pressured officials who listed their product as even a contributing cause of death.

Timothy Grant, 46, died Monday afternoon after he acted delirious, ran into traffic and engaged cops in what the Portland Police Bureau said was a struggle in the street near Northeast 23rd Avenue and Sandy Boulevard. An officer shocked him twice with a Taser. Grant lost consciousness and died while receiving medical attention from paramedics a half-hour later.

Grant’s death is the second in Oregon following a police Taser shock where no other weapon was involved. The first also occurred this year: Southern Oregon University triple-jumper Nicholas Hanson, 24, died Jan. 22 after Ashland police shocked him after he threatened suicide. His official cause of death was a drug overdose, authorities said.

The medical examiner’s office is generally called in to determine a cause of death in homicides, suspicious deaths, deaths from accidents and deaths involving police officers. And the office can come under tremendous pressure to make a particular finding.

Glenn Rudner worked as a forensic pathologist in the Oregon medical examiner’s office for 13 months in 2003 and 2004 before its chief, Karen Gunson, fired him. According to what medical examiner’s officials have said in court records, police complained that he was uncooperative, refusing to let them observe or ask questions during autopsies and declining to testify before grand juries, even though it was part of his job.

“It’s a corrupt system,” Rudner said. “It’s a huge conflict of interest for a police agency to fund what is supposed to be an independent office. There is always pressure from law enforcement. They don’t want to get sued because of one of our decisions.”

William Brady, Oregon state medical examiner from 1969 to 1985, who now works as an expert witness for plaintiffs’ lawyers, said the concern is valid.

“The pressures are real in (medical examiner’s) offices around the country, and how the offices react to those pressures varies widely,” he said.

If a Taser shock aggravated a pre-existing condition, he said, then the cause falls into a “gray area” that makes it “easy to go one way,” meaning finding no fault with police actions.

As for whether liability issues could affect an autopsy outcome, he said, “I wonder, too. É I think that’s a very strong argument for an independent medical examiner’s program.”

He expressed confidence, however, in the expertise of the Oregon medical examiner’s office.

Eugene Gray, the forensic administrator who runs business operations for the state medical examiner’s office and deals most directly with the Oregon State Police, called statements about outside pressure “ludicrous.”

“We come up with the manner and cause of death, not the police,” he said. “A death certificate is a physician’s medical opinion. Unfortunately, in Oregon, this is a question that comes up, but there is absolutely no relationship whatsoever between our findings and any preference the police have.”

Gunson, the Oregon state medical examiner, said she felt no outside pressure Ñ evidenced, she said, by her expediting a toxicology report on Grant’s body, which she hopes to receive next week.

“I want to know what’s going on,” she said.

Officers now on leave
Before the Police Bureau distributed Tasers to all patrol officers last year, Chief Derrick Foxworth said they would help save money. Officers who might otherwise have been injured in a fight with a suspect would not with a Taser, he said. And officers who use a Taser instead of their 9 mm Glock handguns are less likely to be placed on administrative leave during a subsequent bureau investigation.

Officer Paul Park, 35, who hit Grant twice with his Taser in the neck and back, was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation. His two cover officers, Ney Phothivongsa, 34, and Rodney Murdock, 37, also were placed on leave.

Foxworth is in Virginia at a training session and was unavailable for comment.

Park used his Taser on Grant in “drive-stun” mode, police said, meaning he jammed the weapon into Grant instead of firing darts from up to 21 feet away. The Taser delivers a 50,000-volt shock, seizing muscles and dropping a suspect to the ground.

Drive-stun is more controversial than the darts, in part because Taser International’s own training materials note that “if only the stun mode is used, (the Taser) becomes a pain compliance technique” rather than a self-defense tool.

Sgt. Bob Day of the Police Bureau’s Training Division, who oversees Portland police Taser use, said cops have used those weapons about 1,000 times since the start of June 2005. Of those, officers used darts 213 times and drive-stunned suspects 100 times, though there are occasions when cops used both. In the rest of the incidents, officers merely pointed their Tasers at suspects but did not use them.

The city’s Independent Police Review Division has logged 31 citizen complaints of police Taser use since 2002. The complaints ranged from fear an officer would use a Taser to lingering, persistent pain after being shocked.

After Grant’s death, Detective Paul Dolbey, a spokesman, was careful to note that only a trained medical professional could determine a cause of death.

“But there is no reason to believe it was due to the Taser,” he said.

In an e-mail later to reporters, he made a passing reference to “excited delirium,” a controversial factor that some medical examiners list in Taser-case autopsies that is often reliant on the presence of drug use or heart disease. It is not a recognized diagnosis of the American Medical Association.

A spokesman for Taser International, Steve Tuttle, did not consent to an interview, instead e-mailing a statement to the Portland Tribune.

“Until all the facts surrounding this tragic incident are known,” Tuttle wrote, “it is inappropriate to jump to conclusions on the cause of Mr. Grant’s death.”

The Oregon medical examiner’s office has not yet released a cause of death, preferring to wait for toxicology results, Gunson said.

One of a few
Oregon is one of a handful of states that have coroners or medical examiners funded by a law-enforcement agency. Oregon’s office has a budget of $4.2 million, which pays for four forensic pathologists, two medical transcriptionists, one morgue attendant and one administrator. The state medical examiner, Gunson, also appoints deputy medical examiners in larger Oregon counties who are paid by the local county government. The deputies are generally not involved in suspicious, controversial or police-involved deaths.

Of 30,000 deaths a year in Oregon, the state medical examiner’s office investigates and signs death certificates for about 3,600, Gray said.

Grant’s is one of those.

Spencer Neal, a lawyer with a long record of suing Portland cops, said a medical examiner’s finding that the Taser is at fault would likely affect liability for the Police Bureau.

“That’s certainly going to be helpful” for anyone suing over a Taser-related death, he said.

But he said he was confident in the integrity of the medical examiner’s office.

“My limited experience with the M.E.s is you can’t buy them off,” he said.

Beyond the issues surrounding the medical examiner, however, is Taser International.

About 165 police agencies in Oregon supply their officers with Tasers, Tuttle wrote in his e-mail, as do some 8,750 agencies worldwide.

The company sued Roland Kohr, an Indiana regional medical examiner, in 2004, after he appeared on CBS’ “The Early Show” to discuss an autopsy in which Kohr considered the Taser to be a contributing cause of death.

“They filed suit two days before Christmas,” Kohr said. “Ho, ho, ho.”

Kohr said he felt targeted because of his ruling in that death.

“I’m nobody,” he said. “I’m out here in the middle of the country and they came after me like that. Makes you think about why they might do that.”

And Charlie Boseman, a deputy coroner in Anderson County, S.C., told the Arizona Republic newspaper in 2004 that Taser International pressured his office to reverse its ruling that a Taser contributed to a death. Company officials denied pressuring Boseman.

The Republic has documented 140 deaths following police Taser use in the United States and Canada since 1999. In Chicago in February 2005, a medical examiner reported a Taser as the primary cause of a death Ñ the first time that had happened.

Amnesty International studied 74 deaths that followed law-enforcement Taser use, finding in 2004 that only 11 of the suspects were armed and that police routinely used Tasers on people who did not or, because of mental illness, could not follow their commands.

Taser International is adamant that its product is safe, Tuttle wrote.

Stun gun makers sue experts over safety criticisms

March 9, 2006
James Randerson, The Guardian

The company that manufactures the stun guns used by police is suing two technical experts who claim that the weapons can kill, in a move which some scientists say is intimidation.

The electric Taser guns, which use a 50,000-volt shock to incapacitate suspects, were adopted by police across the country in 2004.

The weapons are marketed as "non-lethal", but critics disagree. Since 1999 about 120 deaths have been linked to the weapon's use worldwide, but the manufacturer, Taser International, says that in all cases other factors were the cause.

Currently 28 out of 43 police forces in England and Wales and four of eight Scottish forces use the stun guns. Between April 2003 and January this year they have been fired 97 times by English officers.

The company is suing two scientists who have raised safety concerns. "[The company has] a lot of money and they are playing hardball," said forensic engineer Peter Alexander, secretary of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) engineering section. The company denies it is trying to silence legitimate criticism.

Both men facing legal action say they have been putting forward legitimate technical arguments, and that the company is using the courts to extinguish dissent. One of the defendants, Roland Kohr, is a forensic pathologist and medical examiner for Vigo County, Indiana. He performed an autopsy on James Borden, who died after being "Tased" six times while in police custody in November 2003. Dr Kohr concluded that the electric shock had contributed to Mr Borden's death.

Last month, Dr Kohr was due to speak on Tasers at the AAFS annual meeting in Seattle, the premier international meeting for forensic experts, but following legal action by Taser International, his lawyers advised him to pull out.

"In essence I am being sued for giving my opinion," Dr Kohr said. "Draw your own conclusions as to the timing of this. Maybe their whole intent was to prevent me from speaking at this meeting." Thomas Bohan, of MTC Forensics in Maine, said even if Dr Kohr was wrong, his evidence should be heard: "When medical examiners rightly or wrongly make a judgment in a case, they should be able to do that without the threat of legal action."

Taser International is also suing James Ruggieri, a certified professional engineer from Virginia. The action was initiated just before publication of a paper last year in a peer-reviewed journal. This argued that the Taser's power output is higher, and therefore more dangerous, than the company claims. He had also been intending to speak in Seattle, but pulled out.

Rick Smith, CEO of Taser International in Scotsdale, Arizona, said: "We did not sue Dr Kohr because of his medical opinion." He claims both men are part of an organised campaign which is advancing "wildly flagrant and defamatory" claims about stun weapon safety and that Mr Ruggieri does not have the necessary technical expertise to evaluate the device. Dr Kohr denied any knowledge of an organised campaign.

Mr Smith says there is no evidence that Tasers can kill, but added that they are not risk-free. To properly assess the risks, he said, the stun guns should be compared with alternatives such as pepper spray, batons and firearms. The company has documented more than 900 "saves" in which a suspect was subdued safely using a Taser, rather than being shot.

British police use them only as an alternative to firearms, but Angela Wright of Amnesty International said Taser International was lobbying the government to extend this. "It is in their interests to see it used as widely as possible," she said.

One case study presented in Seattle suggested that Tasers can kill healthy subjects. Amy Sheil at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, described the death of a fit, 28-year-old black prisoner who had attacked prison guards with a pencil. The man was "Tased" six times, culminating in a 169-second bout of electricity. "This is a very long duration," she said, concluding that the Taser had stopped his heart.

Mark Kroll, a cardiologist on Taser International's scientific advisory board, rejects Dr Shiel's verdict, claiming a Taser shot is simply not powerful enough. "The safety factors are enormous," he said.

He pointed out that an independent study by the UK police scientific development branch last year concluded that it was unlikely Tasers could influence the electrical functioning of the heart in healthy people.

Tasers can be safe, but oversight is crucial

February 19, 2006
By Robert Davis, USA TODAY

Tasers, the controversial stun guns used by police to subdue suspects, are safe when used with restraint, a coalition of emergency-medicine doctors says.

But even so, the doctors, who are tackling this issue for the first time, said in a consensus statement Saturday that oversight programs are needed to ensure that Tasers are used properly.

Tasers, and similar devices known as conductive energy devices, incapacitate by delivering a five-second jolt of electricity. They have been under fire because people have died after being subdued.

Amnesty International USA, which monitors Taser deaths, said last year that 103 people in the United States and Canada died between June 2001 and March 2005 after contact with a Taser. The organization charged that there is widespread abuse, that in some cases, Taser use is torture.

But the Metropolitan Municipalities EMS Medical Directors Consortium, doctors who oversee emergency medical services in 30 major cities, said the devices, if used appropriately, are low risk compared with other options, such as guns and batons or police dogs.

Proper use, the doctors say, is delivering as few shocks as possible, and only when the officer or anyone else present is at risk of injury. The consortium based its findings on a review of medical literature, autopsy reports and police practices. "We don't want people to get hurt or have cardiac arrest," says Paul Pepe, Dallas' EMS medical director, who heads the consortium.

The group says it hopes every community using Tasers will follow the recommendations.

More than 8,500 U.S. law enforcement agencies use Tasers, says spokesman Steve Tuttle of manufacturer Taser International Inc.

The doctors are concerned because Tasers are used differently in every city. Some police departments stun a few people a month; others 20 to 30 people a day. "Some cities are more liberal with their use, and the devices are considered more of a behavior-modification tool," says Gary Vilke, San Diego County EMS medical director.

The group says every city should create a registry to track and scrutinize Taser use. "If you are not recording Taser discharges, you are not requiring responsibility," says Corey Slovis, Nashville's EMS medical director. This step will encourage officers to think more before they zap, he says.

Usually, delivering a single, five-second shock is enough to get somebody's full attention and compliance, Vilke says.

But some of the people most likely to be shocked more than once — those so unruly that they're dangerous to themselves and others — may also be suffering from a condition called excited delirium. Many of the people who have died following repeated Taser shocks have suffered the syndrome, which the doctors say makes people wild and uncontrollable.

The syndrome, which is associated with anything from a drug overdose to a severe psychiatric illness, can cause metabolic changes that put the person at higher risk of sudden cardiac arrest.

"The real cause of death in some of these cases is excited delirium," says Kathleen Schrank, EMS medical director in Miami. "These are not people to be put in the back of a police car and taken to jail."

"You could basically say, 'Boo!' next to these people and they would be at risk of dying," says James Dunford, medical director of San Diego emergency medical services. "We don't know everything, but we do know that these people are dying unrelated to the Taser."

"These are the people for which there is almost no other options than shooting them," Dunford says.

The doctors say Tasers are safe when used with restraint, reducing the number of serious injuries from police batons and guns. But they say guidelines are needed so that police and medics can work together to prevent Taser-related injuries and deaths.

Nashville is launching a new type of response. In coming weeks, when a 911 dispatcher or a police officer on the scene suspects that an unruly person is suffering from excited delirium, he or she will call out paramedics, more police officers and a police sergeant.

In the perfect response, Slovis says, paramedics would stand ready with an injection to calm the person. As the Taser shock is administered, the police officers would restrain the person — they can touch the person without getting shocked themselves — and the medic would move in to inject the tranquilizer.

But even after a person is subdued, risks remain. Another medical problem that the coalition found was positional asphyxia, in which people stop breathing when they are restrained and placed on their stomachs, making it impossible to take full, deep breaths.

"You can't sit on people and you can't put pressure on their chest wall," says Slovis. "As soon as you are suppressing their ventilation, you put them at risk."

The coalition also says cities must reconsider where they put Taser use on the police department's acceptable-use-of-force scale. Some cities have used Tasers on anyone who does not comply with police commands.

Dallas police reduced the number of people being shocked by telling officers that some physical threat has to be present. "The officers have to feel that they are threatened or that the public is at risk," says Lt. Robert Owens of the city police department.

He trains his officers to recognize the danger of repeated shocks. "The people who died got an average of 25 seconds. That's five cycles on average," he says. But the Taser prevents serious injuries when used properly, he says.

The other option on a police officer's belt is a baton. "People who will not be controlled, your only option is to beat them up if you don't have any other tools," he says. If an officer has to fight, he says, "you're going to get hurt and they are going to get hurt."

How Can You Justify Using A Taser 12 Times?

February 14, 2006
Joe Friesen, Globe and Mail (Canada)

BEAMSVILLE, ONT. -- Samantha Foldi faces life as a widow from her wheelchair. For nearly 10 years, since a car accident left her partially paralyzed, she relied on her husband Jim for so much. He quit his construction job to help with her rehab and to care for their four children. He once rescued them from a fire, lowering his wife to safety out a bedroom window.

Mr. Foldi, 39, died last summer -- after a late-night confrontation with police. Officers fired a 50,000-volt taser stun gun 12 times during the struggle; it's not known how many times he was hit.

The province's Special Investigations Unit, the civilian body that probes fatal incidents involving police, said last week that the police are not criminally responsible for his death.

Mr. Foldi is one of 13 people in Canada to have died after being hit with a stun gun. Amnesty International has called for police to stop using the devices; Ontario's deputy chief coroner says they're a safe alternative to deadly force.

In an interview last week, Ms. Foldi, 35, sat at the dining room table she and Jim shared with their children in Beamsville, Ont., halfway between Hamilton and St. Catharines. Photos of her husband, a huge, square-jawed man with the look of a tough-guy actor, were spread in front of her. Her body shook when she spoke, and the effort of forming the words gave her voice the sound of a slow, southern drawl.

"It's hard all the time now without Jim," she said. "It took my man from me. I'm just really confused why they did that."

Mr. Foldi, 6 foot 2, 250 pounds, began behaving erratically at 2:40 a.m. last Canada Day, prompting several 911 calls to Niagara Regional Police, the SIU says. He ran to a house on Crescent Drive, a half block from his home, pounded on the door and shouted, "Help me."

He ran to a second home and smashed a window, cutting his hand badly. Bleeding, he entered another home just as police arrived. Two officers followed him into the home and one fired an X-26 taser once. The SIU says the probes did not remain in or on Mr. Foldi's body.

Mr. Foldi leaped from a first-floor window. When the officers confronted him again, he ignored orders to give up. They pepper-sprayed him twice, and he tried to run away. Three officers grabbed him and fought to subdue him.

During the three-minute struggle, one officer discharged his taser 11 times, using what's known as a drive stun technique, where the device is pressed against a person and fired. Mr. Foldi fell to the ground and was handcuffed. He started breathing heavily, lost consciousness and never recovered.

The SIU says police were justified in using force to arrest Mr. Foldi.

His family is furious.

"That's the biggest letdown. How can you justify using a taser 12 times?" asked Mr. Foldi's younger brother, Steven.

"He was a threat to nobody. He didn't have a weapon on him. An injured man asking for help, and this is the response?"

A coroner's inquest will eventually be asked to determine what killed Mr. Foldi.

The SIU says he had a potentially lethal amount of an illegal substance in his system. Foldi family members have been told it was cocaine.

They say they didn't know about his drug use, and they were in Hamilton the night he died, but they reject the idea of an overdose.

"If he overdosed he would've been doing the chicken dance on the floor," Ms. Foldi said.

The SIU report says that during the struggle Mr. Foldi showed "phenomenal strength," one of the signs frequently ascribed to a state known as excited delirium.

Excited delirium is not a medical diagnosis but a term forensics experts use to describe a combination of signs and symptoms that can lead to sudden death. It is usually associated with cocaine use, but can be connected to psychiatric illness or acute alcohol withdrawal.

"People in excited delirium are impervious to pain and they have superhuman strength and they need to be subdued for their safety and the safety of others," Jim Cairns, Ontario's deputy chief coroner, said. Often, even several officers are unable to bring a person in that state under control, he said.

"After this huge fight that often goes on, they suddenly go quiet and tranquil. It seems as though they're getting a second wind. In fact, they're not. They're dying at that point," Dr. Cairns said. The cause of death is often an irregular heartbeat brought on by abnormalities in blood chemistry, he said.

Dr. Cairns said tasers can mitigate the need to resort to deadly force.

A probe fired from a taser delivers 50,000 volts, usually overwhelming a person's nervous system and sending muscles into uncontrollable contractions.

But if it's used in drive stun mode, although it emits the same amount of electrical energy, it can't cause a neuromuscular response.

"It's not effective at all if someone's in a state of excited delirium," Dr. Cairns said.

Guidelines suggest you shouldn't use the drive stun mode any more than necessary, he said, adding there's no evidence it can kill.

The Niagara police, who had been using tasers for only a week when the Foldi incident took place, said they couldn't comment while a coroner's inquest is pending.

Ms. Foldi had hoped for answers from the SIU probe. Now the family will consider launching a lawsuit.

"Not for the money, but we can't let them get away with it," she said. "Jim is gone. It's like a part of my heart is, too."

Study raises concerns over Tasers' safety

Feb 13, 2006
Robert Anglen, Arizona Republic

A study measuring electric shocks from a Taser stun gun found that it was 39 times more powerful than the manufacturer claimed, raising new questions about the weapon's safety.

The study, published last month in the peer-reviewed Journal of the National Academy of Forensic Engineers, concluded that the shocks are powerful enough to cause fatal heart rhythms. It is one of the few scientific studies of Taser's electric jolt in which the company did not participate.

"The findings show the energy delivered by the weapon to be considerably understated by the manufacturer," the Journal study said. "These findings place the weapon well into the lethal category."

Officials with Scottsdale-based Taser International Inc. condemned the findings, saying they are exaggerated, erroneous and "beyond the laws of physics."

They pointed to a test conducted last week in response to the Journal article. A lab hired by Taser found that the weapon produced power that was significantly less than what the Journal study found and met all specifications.

Taser contends that the author of the Journal study, electrical engineer James Ruggieri, does not have the technical expertise to make conclusions about stun guns. Taser is suing Ruggieri for defamation over his claims in a presentation and testimony in a wrongful-death case last year that Tasers can cause fatal heart rhythms.

In a separate finding, the Army also concluded last year that Tasers could cause ventricular fibrillation, the irregular heart rhythm characteristic of a heart attack.

A memorandum from the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland, where the Army develops, tests and evaluates weapons, said, "Seizures and ventricular fibrillation can be induced by the electric current."

At issue was whether soldiers should be shocked with the stun guns during training exercises, as Taser recommends.

The Army's occupational health sciences director determined that Taser is an effective weapon but added in the February 2005 memo that "the practice of using these weapons on U.S. Army military and civilian forces in training is not recommended, given the potential risks."

Taser for years has maintained that its stun guns have never caused a death or serious injury. Company officials say the guns save lives, reduce injury and save millions of dollars in legal costs because they prevent deadly confrontations.

But since 1999, more than 167 people have died after police Taser strikes in the United States and Canada. Of those, medical examiners have cited Tasers in 27 deaths, saying that they were a cause of death in five cases, a contributing factor in 17 cases and could not be ruled out in five cases.

Several law enforcement agencies have filed lawsuits accusing Taser of misleading them about the stun gun's safety and claim that the company failed to conduct adequate tests before selling the weapon. Some police departments have delayed or halted Taser purchases because of safety concerns.

Taser denies these claims and says its record of safety is bolstered by dozens of medical and university studies and by the company's experts.

Law enforcement officials and testing experts agree that there is no widely accepted standard for measuring Tasers. Studies have shown various results.

In May, for example, an international testing laboratory hired by Canadian authorities initially reported that two stun guns were significantly more powerful than the manufacturer specified. The guns also fired at different levels of power.

The stun guns were used on a man who died after being shocked by Vancouver, British Columbia, police in 2004.

Taser challenged the test last week, and the laboratory backed off its results. Officials with the lab, Intertek ETL Semko, said testing protocols provided by the police differed from those of the stun-gun manufacturer. As a result, Intertek said the tests could not be relied upon.

Bruce Brown, deputy commissioner of a British Columbia agency investigating the police role in the Vancouver death, said his agency wants to enlist Canada's National Police Research Center to conduct a rigorous study of the stun gun's power.

"We've sent people to the moon, so there has got to be a way to come up with a peer-reviewed (standard)," he said.

The 50,000-volt Taser works by shooting two darts up to 25 feet. The darts are connected to wires that deliver a burst of electricity that is designed to instantly immobilize a suspect. The gun also can be used as a handheld device, without the darts, by touching two metal probes directly against a person's body in what police call a "drive stun."

The shock from a Taser is measured in electric pulses. Tasers typically used by police deliver 15 to 19 pulses a second in a five-second interval, although the gun will continue firing without interruption as long as the trigger is held down.

Tasers operate at 50,000 volts, but Taser says the stun guns do not pose an electrical safety risk because the pulse's current is too low and its duration too short to affect internal organs, including the heart.

Ruggieri's study found that the Taser's pulse was more powerful and longer than the gun's specifications indicate. Ruggieri studied a Taser M-18, which is nearly identical to the Taser M-26 used by police except it has less power.

Taser specifies that the M-18 produces 10 pulses a second at 1.76 watts per pulse. Ruggieri said his tests showed the Taser produced 14 pulses a second at 50 watts per pulse.

Ruggieri said it took him months of research to conduct and complete the tests.

He said he relied on Taser's research and previous stun-gun studies to create a verifiable methodology for testing the Taser.

His findings are based on how electric current penetrates the body.When established electrical standards were applied to the stun gun's electrical discharge, Ruggieri said the current could be fatal. He said measurements of the electric current showed that, according to electric safety standards, the gun had a 50 percent risk of causing ventricular fibrillation.

Taser Vice President Steve Tuttle called the claim "ludicrous" and said it is "clearly refuted by the fact that well over 100,000 human volunteers have been exposed to the Taser discharge without fatality."

Taser maintains that skin tissue blocks electric current and is equivalent to 1,000 ohms of resistance.

But Ruggieri said skin tissue breaks down as electricity is applied, decreasing resistance and increasing the impact of the shocks on the human body.

"This creates a runaway effect of increasing current with decreasing resistance," Ruggieri said.

An independent electrical engineer who reviewed the Journal study at the request of The Arizona Republic said Ruggieri's conclusions were credible and based on scientific principles.

Robert Nabours, who has degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford and the University of Arizona, said scientific and medical evidence support Ruggieri's claims that skin tissue breaks down when subjected to electric pulses. Among the evidence are findings from Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology doctors.

Ruggieri focused on the Taser in its "drive stun" mode. He said measurements of the current found that the power was about 39 times greater than the manufacturer's specifications. Taking into account the lowered resistance of skin tissue, Ruggieri said the stun gun generated 704 watts of power as opposed to 18 watts.

Ruggieri contends that one of Taser's main claims of safety, that the duration of the electric pulse is too short to cause injury, could not be proven. He said his tests of the current showed that duration of the pulse also increases as resistance drops.

The lab hired by Taser, Exponent of Phoenix, could not replicate Ruggieri's results. Exponent, which has offices throughout the country, is a consulting firm that employs scientific and engineering experts who, like members of the National Academy of Forensic Engineers, often serve as expert witnesses in court cases.

Exponent electrical engineer Ashish Arora said Ruggieri reported 17 times more power than the Taser he tested. Arora said that in his tests, the power of the stun gun measured at or below specifications.

Arora said the pulses Ruggieri measured could also not be verified, even when resistance was dropped. He said that caused concern.

He said he would have expected some similarity in the results. But he said the tests results "were completely different."

There were differences between Exponent's and Ruggieri's tests, both involving how the gun was charged and how the current was measured.

Ruggieri said he used a battery specified by the manufacturer to mirror a real-world setting. He changed the battery after each jolt to ensure that the power did not degenerate. Exponent used a power supply to charge the battery.

Ruggieri said a power source could limit the amount of power going into the gun in a way that a battery would not.

Ruggieri also measured the output using two high-voltage meters attached to each of the Taser probes, which he said gave more-accurate readings.

Exponent used a single meter. Arora said the single probe and battery wouldn't change the results.

Taser has repeatedly attacked Ruggieri's credibility since he made a presentation critical of the stun guns to the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in February 2005. Taser claimed his presentation was based on "junk science" and "propaganda" and that his conclusions have been disputed by numerous government, university and medical studies.

Some of Ruggieri's claims were independently verified, including his assertion that Taser had misapplied Underwriters Laboratories standards in suggesting the stun gun could not cause ventricular fibrillation.

Taser sued Ruggieri in November, several months after he announced the Journal findings at an engineering conference in Chicago.

In a news release last year, Taser described Ruggieri as a high school dropout with no medical training.

Ruggieri said he left high school to attend college in New York. He later obtained a master's degree in computer science from the University of Phoenix.

Ruggieri's resume shows that he is a professional engineer with licenses in five states. He said he has investigated electrical accidents for federal agencies and helped write electrical safety standards for top electrical laboratories and commissions.

Taser officials challenged the academy journal, calling it an "obscure bulletin," saying none of the peer reviewers was qualified to assess the findings.

"That unfortunately allowed Mr. Ruggieri to utilize inappropriate science and flawed mathematics in attempts to support his unsupportable conclusions," Taser's Tuttle said.

Journal Editor Marvin Specter said the academy is affiliated with the National Society of Professional Engineers and is made up of experts in several engineering disciplines.

The Journal lists a technical review committee for Ruggieri's study that includes 20 engineers, including one well-known Taser consultant. The reviewers' identities are confidential and have not been released, Specter said.

Specter said Ruggieri's paper went through a rigorous peer-review process before being published in the biannual journal.

In an interview last week, Ruggieri said Taser has launched personal attacks to distract from the real issue.

"This isn't about me. It's about the findings, the study," he said.

Tasers A Role In Man's Death

February 4, 2006
ABC News, California

In the South Bay, medical examiners say taser guns used by San Jose police to subdue a man played a role in that man's death. The main cause of Jose Rios' death in November was heart failure, during his fight with officers obesity and cocaine-related heart disease were also listed as factors. But the coroner's office concluded another contributory cause of death was tasering and pepper spraying.
Investigators say Rios began fighting with police after arguing with his wife and trying to grab their four-year-old son.

Cardiac Electrophysiological Consequences of Neuromuscular Incapacitating Device Discharges

CONCLUSIONS: In an experimental model, NID discharges across the chest can produce cardiac stimulation at high rates. This study suggests that NIDs may have cardiac risks that require further investigation in humans.

Taser use on woman like torture, lawyer says

January 25, 2006
CBC News

A prosecutor suggests a woman was tortured when two Halifax police officers used a stun gun on her.

Constables John Hope and Mark Galloway are on trial, charged with assault after using a Taser on Suzanne Silver while she was in a police holding cell in September 2004.

The officers arrested Silver in Eastern Passage, then took her to the holding cell at the Halifax police station. Silver was furious and unleashed a stream of profanity laden invective.

Then, in the cell, when she wouldn't let police take her handcuffs off, Hope used the Taser on Silver three times.

"She was lying on her back with both of her hands handcuffed behind her back and in that position she was burned, shocked with a Taser more than once. Was that reasonable?" prosecutor Darrell Carmichael said Tuesday as the trial wrapped up.

Carmichael said not only was it not reasonable, it bordered on torture.

"The torture section of the Criminal Code defines torture as intentionally inflicting suffering on another person in order to coerce or intimidate them," he said.

Pat Duncan, the defence lawyer representing Hope, said any talk of torture is "absurd."

"They weren't charged with torture. Torture had no application whatsoever in this case. The Taser is an approved instrument," Duncan said.

The defence argues the police officers did everything by the book and they were just trying to control an unruly prisoner. The Crown maintains the arrest was illegal in the first place and that police used excessive force.

It's now up to Judge Carole Beaton to decide. She'll bring down her decision in March.

Excited delirium: When suspects 'scare themselves to death'

January 23, 2006
BY SAMUEL BRUCHEY, STAFF WRITER
policeone.com

Dennis Cherbavaz slipped into a coma and died in December 2003, three weeks after Suffolk County sheriff deputies pulled him from his car in Rocky Point, wrestled him to the ground and struck him with batons, according to sheriff accounts, autopsy reports and interviews with Cherbavaz's relatives and their attorney.

Three months later, David Glowczenski died hours after Southampton Village police officers tackled him outside his home, shot him with pepper spray and shocked him with a stun gun, according to interviews with Suffolk police homicide detectives who investigated the death, Glowczenski's relatives, their attorneys and an autopsy report.

When the Suffolk medical examiner's office investigated the incidents, it reached a surprising conclusion: The men, both diagnosed schizophrenics, had essentially scared themselves to death.

Specifically, the office found, the deaths were caused by a rare medical condition that is disputed even within the scientific community called "excited delirium." It was not the violence, experts found, but rather a collage of sudden and severe psychological changes associated with excited delirium - fear, paranoia, delusion - that overcame the men, caused their hearts to race and adrenaline to surge, and, ultimately, brought about their deaths.

To Cherbavaz's and Glowczenski's families, the explanation for the deaths were outlandish and incomprehensible.

"That's just ridiculous," said Glowczenski's sister, Jean Griffin, 32, of Hampton Bays. "To disregard the amount of torture David received and to just look at that element [excited delirium] is completely irresponsible. It's a slap in the face."

Cherbavaz's sister, Dorothy, 54, of White Plains, said she screamed at the medical examiner's office over the phone after reading her brother's autopsy report. "They just told me, 'Sometimes we find things about people we love that we never expected,'" she said.

Civil rights activists worry the condition can be cited to explain away a more troubling alternative - police brutality.

"A lot of the time it's used as a catch-all to describe death situations without looking at factors that may have contributed, such as police abuse," said Mark Schlosberg, director of the organization's police practices unit in California.

While acknowledging that excited delirium is uncommon, Suffolk Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Charles Wetli defended it. In scientific and medical circles, he is a proponent of the diagnosis. He has published articles in medical journals and is paid to testify as an expert on the syndrome in "four or five" cases each year, often to defend the police, he said.

"Excited delirium is an established fact," Wetli said. "It's nothing that I invented."

Experts familiar with the condition explained that it was excited delirium that would have spurred Cherbavaz, 50, to flee when sheriff deputies arrived at his apartment on Nov. 11, 2003, to serve order of protection papers filed by his sister. The deputies chased him until he was cornered in his car at an intersection. Surrounded, police accounts then show, Cherbavaz refused to exit his car and turned up the radio, spurring the confrontation that followed. And it was the same condition that compelled Glowczenski, 35, to push past police officers after they asked him to go with them to a mental hospital, as his worried mother had requested.

'The fuse was lit'

Once the condition took hold, these experts say, the deaths were all but inevitable.

"The fuse was lit," said Dr. Deborah Mash, a neurologist from Miami who reviewed Glowczenski's case at the request of Wetli's office.

In large part, events surrounding the deaths are not disputed. Law enforcement officials agree that the encounters escalated violently, but insist that appropriate, nonlethal force was used to subdue the men who they say resisted arrest. While a number of law enforcement officials spoke publicly at the time of the deaths, several officials familiar with the investigations declined comment for this story because of multimillion-dollar lawsuits filed by the men's families.

The condition, which is also called hypermania or acute psychosis, was cited in 2005 in more than 100 deaths in police custody nationwide, most involving stun guns, according to a study published last September by a group of Minnesota physicians.

But many experts believe the condition may not exist at all.

The American Medical Association does not recognize it as a cause of death, and locally, Nassau's chief medical examiner, Dr. Tamara Bloom, has not cited the condition in the past five years. She denied a request to be interviewed for this story.

Medical community split

Even medical examiners are divided over whether excited delirium is real. "If everyone is dying from excited delirium, then I have just one question," said Dr. Werner Spitz, a medical examiner from Michigan who believes the condition is real, but extremely rare. "Why are they all taking their last breath with six cops sitting on their back?"

Wetli, who said he does not fully understand how excited delirium causes death, said he has cited it "once or twice a year," mostly in police custody deaths. Wetli said he could not be exact on the number, and Suffolk's Department of Health declined to detail the number of deaths attributed to the condition.

He also refused to specifically discuss the Cherbavaz or Glowczenski cases because of the pending suits against the county. He said he learned about the syndrome in Miami in the early 1980s while examining the death of a drug smuggler, who had been unable to pass a cocaine packet he had swallowed. At the hospital he thrashed wildly, then died. A psychiatrist told Wetli it sounded like excited delirium.

His interest piqued, he examined other drug deaths and identified a series of behavioral changes he came to associate with the syndrome. He said victims often talk gibberish, grow paranoid and frightened, they hallucinate and become impervious to pain or improbably strong. As they are being subdued, they thrash about and refuse to calm down.

Internally, Wetli said, their heartbeats accelerate and their temperatures skyrocket. They reach levels of exhaustion that should cause the brain to shut the body down, but under excited delirium, Wetli said, the brain doesn't pay attention and the body refuses to stop until vital signs crash.

Other experts say they observe these same symptoms, but associate them with other medical conditions. Dr. Ronald O'Halloran, the chief medical examiner in Ventura County, Calif., said he often attributes them to asphyxiation. "It's clearly an area of controversy," he said, adding that he has investigated 10 deaths involving people in police custody and has not attributed any to excited delirium.

It remains a mystery

Some medical examiners, like Spitz, the Michigan medical examiner, say it is cited too frequently and misapplied. Even proponents acknowledge much about it remains a mystery. No one, for example, knows what makes a person susceptible.

Wetli said it can be associated with drugs or mental illness, especially those who fail to take prescribed medication. People with infectious diseases, such as meningitis, also are vulnerable, he said. Mash, the Miami neurologist, said it is caused by an underlying genetic defect that has not been discovered.

"We haven't found it yet," she said. "But we will."

As for what causes a person with excited delirium to die, Wetli said it could be an increase in the hormone noradrenaline, or a change in blood chemistry, or perhaps a reduction in potassium.

Steven Karch, a pathologist in Las Vegas and Berkeley, Calif., said he believes in most cases the mechanism is heart-related. Over time, drug use enlarges the heart and clogs blood vessels, he said. When such a person's heart races, it can kill them. "The extra stress that makes you think you are about to die is enough to kill you," Karch said. "That is my theory."

Without anything to substantiate the theories, relatives of Glowczenski and Cherbavaz, along with their attorney, Frederick K. Brewington, of Hempstead, say they remain unconvinced.

'Extraordinary coincidence'

"It's an extraordinary coincidence, isn't it?" Glowczenski's brother-in-law, Syd Griffin, 39, said. "Excited delirium would be present in all the cases, but the police abuse has nothing to do with it."

With both Cherbavaz and Glowczenski, autopsies performed by the county medical examiner found police efforts to subdue them were not to blame. Both autopsy reports were reviewed by a reporter. Glowczenski's cited "acute exhaustive mania due to schizophrenia." Cherbavaz's autopsy noted that a "violent struggle while resisting arrest" took place, and concluded that death resulted from "schizophrenia with acute psychosis" coupled with a pre-existing heart condition. The autopsy also said he suffered "blunt impact trauma" to his arms, legs and abdomen but no sign of "major acute traumatic injury."

These results were attacked by experts hired by the family's attorneys. In Glowczenski's case, Rockland County Medical Examiner Dr. Lone Tanning cited "extensive evidence of excess force" in the death. Tanning said Glowczenski died from repeated Taser shocks, blunt force injuries and pepper spray. She labeled the death a homicide. She also said she believed Glowczenski was handcuffed and had his ankles tied, and that a "large man kneeled on his back."

While he is sympathetic to the emotions of victims' relatives, Wetli said he will continue to testify, lecture and write about the condition. Convinced the syndrome is real, Wetli met with Suffolk police Commissioner Richard Dormer in 2004, prompting the department to circulate a memo detailing its symptoms.

Even as he believes excited delirium is a real condition, Spitz, who has not been retained by either family, said many of these deaths linked to the condition are actually the result of asphyxiation. "They die because they cannot breathe," he said. "They have pressure on the back."

Then, pausing, Spitz added, "Why doesn't [excited delirium] happen when somebody is not restrained? You know what that means? It means it was a coincidence. I do not believe in coincidences."

Link between excited delirium, taser deaths to be studied

January 14, 2006
Edmonton Journal

CALGARY -- A Calgary physician is leading a national study to see whether a medical condition that causes violent behavior and superhuman strength can turn deadly when police Taser or pepper- spray suspects.

Dr. Christine Hall is undertaking a three-year analysis of subjects who die in police custody and what role the little-understood disorder, known as excited delirium, may play.

The condition, while not universally recognized by the medical establishment, has been linked to the deaths of several police suspects, including cases in which detainees died after being Tasered or pepper-sprayed.

"We think there's something systematically different from the people who die in custody than the people who don't," said Hall, an emergency room doctor and epidemiologist.

The study will also examine any association between police use of pepper spray or stun guns and custody deaths.

Hall's research, which must still be approved by an ethics review board, follows the Christmas Eve death of a man who was Tasered by Edmonton police after he went into a fit of rage at an intersection.

The Tasers can deliver a 50,000-volt shock to temporarily immobilize a suspect and have been the subject of heated debate in recent years.

While supporters argue they are less lethal than other weapons, groups like Amnesty International blame the stun guns for dozens of police custody deaths in North America.

Hall's research, which has received $1.5 million in funding from the Canadian Police Research Centre, could begin as early as this summer, pending approval from an ethics committee.

She hopes the study will unravel some of the mysteries surrounding excited delirium, a disorder that hasn't been studied extensively.

The condition appears to strike men who are mentally ill or high on drugs.

People suspected of having excited delirium are often agitated, violent, hot to the touch and don't feel pain at all, Hall said.

Hall will work with 11 police forces around the country to collect reports on all suspects who physically resist arrest, comparing the data to reports on suspects who die in custody.

The study will examine whether the suspects exhibited signs of excited delirium and what forms of restraint, such as Tasers, police used in the cases.

"We have to figure out if there's a way to know who the people at risk are," said Hall.

Since the devices came into use in Calgary last October, police officers there have used Tasers 37 times on suspects without any serious ill effects, according to Staff Sgt. Kevin de Villenfagne of the Calgary Police Service.

He said the move to study excited delirium and its relationship to Tasers is helpful for police.

"Anytime we can do research to determine the validity of the tools we're using to ensure we're doing the best with the tools we have, that's a good thing," he said.

Taser sparks outrage

January 6, 2006
Sorcha McGinnis, Edmonton Sun

The death of a man who was Tasered on Christmas Eve has stirred up outrage in a city woman who is now demanding a fatality inquiry in the case of her brother. Jennifer Bosse's 28-year-old brother Ronald Perry died March 23, 2004, after suffering a massive heart attack brought on by excited delirium. He was taken to hospital four days earlier following a struggle with police that saw him Tasered. Bosse says she still has more questions than answers about Perry's death - especially in the wake of a similar incident involving another city man - and hopes a fatality inquiry will provide her family with some closure.

Alesandro Fiacco, 33, was Tasered by cops Dec. 24 after he was found behaving erratically. He was subdued by the device but died on his way to hospital.

"I was upset his family had to go through that, especially with it being Christmas time," said Bosse. "I'm angry police are still using Tasers even though there's been more than one occasion where people have gone into cardiac arrest and passed away. If cops don't know a person is on medication, (a Taser) could harm them. There are other ways to subdue a person."

Police had been responding to a complaint about a man vandalizing cars in the area of 129 Avenue and 64 Street on March 19 when Perry was Tasered. Earlier, he had injured his head in a fight. The day before his arrest, he broke his ankle jumping from a third-floor balcony near 49 Street and 113 Avenue.

The medical examiner's office later determined there was no link between the man's death and his being Tasered. A police investigation concluded the matter was non-criminal. Alberta Justice spokesman Mark Cooper said at the conclusion of his report, the medical examiner forwarded Perry's file to the Alberta Fatality Review Board which did not recommend a fatality inquiry.

The reasons for that decision have not been made public. However, Cooper said the family has the option of asking the board to reconsider its decision.

Bosse plans to get a lawyer through Legal Aid to start the process.

Judge throws out Taser's libel suit against Gannett Corporation

CASES DISPOSED OF ON DISMISSAL MOTIONS

In January 2006, a judge threw the case out, saying that the error in the article was not malicious, and that the story was protected by the First Amendment.

USA TODAY: TASER, Inc. v. USA TODAY -- The trial court granted our motion for summary judgment in this libel and invasion-of-privacy action brought by TASER, a manufacturer of stun guns. The plaintiff's main complaint was with a USA TODAY sidebar which, due to a mathematical error, attributed too much electrical current to TASER devices. The court granted summary judgment on the libel claim finding that the publication of the single inadvertent mathematical error did not constitute the type of reckless falsity that a public-figure plaintiff like TASER must establish. The trial court dismissed the false light invasion-of-privacy claim on the ground that corporations have no right to privacy.

S.E.C. decides not to act against taser on safety statements

December 14, 2005
By ALEX BERENSON, New York Times

The Securities and Exchange Commission has decided not to take action against Taser International in connection with statements about the safety of its electric stun pistols, the company said yesterday.

Taser's shares jumped 15 percent on the news, though they remain far below the highs they set a year ago. They closed at $7.04, up 92 cents. They closed at $32.59 on Dec. 30 last year.

The company's pistols, called Tasers, which are widely used by police to subdue suspects, have been associated with more than 140 deaths. The weapons fire electrified barbs up to 25 feet, delivering a painful 50,000-volt shock.

Taser's sales and profits soared in 2004, but the company's profits have plunged this year as controversy over the safety of its weapons has grown. In November, an influential police research group recommended new restrictions on the use of the weapons, suggesting that officers be allowed to use them only on people who are actively resisting arrest.

Last month, Taser said it would have to restate its profits for the first half of 2005 because it had failed to properly record its legal and professional expenses during that period. The company also failed to file its third-quarter financial statements within the Nasdaq's deadline for filing, leading the Nasdaq to warn that Taser stock would be delisted. Taser has appealed the delisting requirement.

In January, Taser announced that the S.E.C. had begun an investigation into the company's statements about the safety of its stun guns and a sales order that it announced in late December 2004. Taser said in a statement yesterday that S.E.C. enforcement officials had told the company that they had completed the investigation and had decided against taking action against the company.

Taser also said that the S.E.C. was ''continuing to investigate issues relating to trading in the company's stock.''

As a matter of policy, the S.E.C. does not comment on its investigations.

Police won't face charges in taser death, Crown says

December 10, 2005
ROBERT MATAS, Globe & Mail

Officers' actions 'necessary and reasonable'

VANCOUVER -- Vancouver police will not face criminal charges for using the controversial taser stun gun in an incident 18 months ago that led to the death of 44-year-old Robert Bagnell, a spokesman for B.C. Crown counsel said yesterday.

"A thorough review by senior members of the criminal justice branch determined that charges were not warranted," Stan Lowe said in an interview. "Based on all the available evidence, the officers acted within the scope of their duties and their actions were necessary and reasonable."

Mr. Bagnell was shot at repeatedly, possibly with more than one taser gun, during an incident on June 23, 2004, in a residential hotel in central Vancouver. At least five police officers were believed to be in the room at the time of his death. His family has been trying for 18 months to find out what happened in that room.

Yesterday, Mr. Bagnell's sister Patti Gillman questioned the basis for the decision not to lay charges.

"I do not know how they can draw that conclusion given the evidence we've seen," she said in an interview from Trenton, Ont. "We believe they made that decision on incomplete and contradictory evidence."

A police report provided to the family shows information about the use of the gun was incomplete, she said. "They don't have anything to go on, as to information on which taser was used, when it was used, by whom it was used."

Ms. Gillman also questioned the credibility of the information. "The report states the weapons were secured adequately at the scene and that's not true. They were not secured until a day or two after the fact," she said.

"We hope the inquest will give us a little more insight into what did happen that night. But, so far, we still do not know what happened."

The taser gun, which emits a 50,000-volt electrical charge, is at the centre of an international controversy over how police should deal with potentially violent people. Police say the gun is an effective weapon that saves lives in confrontations. Its critics, including Amnesty International, say the gun has not been tested sufficiently and has caused several deaths.

Police initially told Mr. Bagnell's family that he had stopped breathing when they tried to subdue him, and they did not mention the use of the taser gun. But a month later, police revealed a taser stun gun had been used. A few weeks after that, police said the taser was used to rescue Mr. Bagnell from a fire. The family later discovered the fire was a minor electrical fault on a different floor of the hotel.

Mr. Lowe dismissed concerns about the investigation. "It is the view of senior Crown counsel [that] it was a thorough and comprehensive investigation," he said, adding that prosecutors would have pushed for a further investigation if they had any concerns.

The decision not to lay charges was based on a review by senior staff in the regional office and a second review at headquarters in Victoria, he said. The police report on the incident was submitted to the regional prosecutors' office on May 25, 11 months after the death. Senior management in Victoria received the report on July 15.

The prosecutors concluded that Vancouver police had a right to arrest and take Mr. Bagnell into custody, Mr. Lowe said.

Also, prosecutors decided that it was reasonable to use the taser gun.

Vancouver Police spokesman Howard Chow also dismissed concerns about the internal report, saying that no one had suggested previously that it was incomplete or contradictory. He noted that a date has not yet been set for the coroner's inquest, and that the Public Complaints Commissioner can still call an public inquiry.

Man killed by taser looked massive, inquest told

December 1, 2005
Petti Fong, Globe and Mail

VANCOUVER -- Autopsy results show Roman Andreichikov was a slight, smaller-than-average man, but to the four police officers who struggled to subdue him while he was under a cocaine-induced psychosis, he looked massive.

Mr. Andreichikov, a onetime fitness trainer, was so strong and unwilling to comply with police commands that he bucked off a 175-pound (80-kilogram) police officer with his legs while two others held down his upper body.

Three of the officers testifying at a coroner's inquest into Mr. Andreichikov's death said they gauged his height to be at least 5 feet 11 inches (1.8 metres) and his weight at more than 200 pounds.

All the officers were surprised to hear while they were testifying that Mr. Andreichikov was 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 168 pounds (76 kilograms).

"He was extremely strong, even face down," Constable Brian McKeddie said at the inquest yesterday. "It took 15 to 20 seconds to get the handcuffs on and we had a lot of difficulty holding him."

When police responded to a 911 call that Mr. Andreichikov was suicidal, the man looked so massive and imposing that within seconds of seeing him sitting on a couch, Vancouver Police Constable Darren Hall said he decided to draw his taser from its holster.

When Constable Hall and his partner, Constable Mark Bouchey, entered the Granville Street apartment on May 1, 2004, Mr. Andreichikov, 25, was upset and on the fifth day of a cocaine binge. A friend had called to say Mr. Andreichikov had attempted to commit suicide twice that day.

In his testimony, Constable Hall said he tried to control Mr. Andreichikov's legs while two other officers, who arrived moments later, attempted to control his upper body. But Constable Hall, who is 5 feet 11 inches and 175 pounds, said Mr. Andreichikov easily lifted the officer off him with his legs and threw him about 60 centimetres.

The five-person jury is hearing evidence in the inquest about the circumstances that led Constable Hall to use his taser. Mr. Andreichikov stopped breathing and died within moments of being hit with two electrical shocks.

Constable Hall said after he was thrown off, he showed Constable Bouchey a better technique to control the man's lower body, but the other police officer still had trouble.

At 6 feet 3 inches and 220 pounds, Constable Bouchey was larger than Mr. Andreichikov.

Constable Hall said that when he and his partner first entered the apartment and saw Mr. Andreichikov, he didn't have time to gauge the man's height and weight adequately. He was more concerned, he told the jury, about the man's agitated state.

"I could see how hard he was flexing his body. He wasn't sitting still. He was shaking and vibrating," Constable Hall said. "With the clenching of the jaw, the fast breathing, the sounds. It was hard to describe. It was so primal."

The officer said based on his experience he believed the man was in a drug-induced psychosis.

Constable Hall said he once saw a 300-pound police officer, one of the biggest guys on the force, lose a physical encounter with a 130-pound teenager in a similar agitated state. It took six police officers to control the skinny youth.

In his testimony, Constable Hall, who had received his taser 10 days before the May 1 incident and was testing it in the field, said he tried to calm Mr. Andreichikov. He said he feared that the man was going to run for the balcony and try to leap off again.

In earlier testimony, Rahim Hadani said he visited Mr. Andreichikov that day and got caught in the middle of a fight he was having with his girlfriend. Mr. Hadani persuaded the girlfriend to leave and tried to calm his friend down. But twice, Mr. Hadani said, he had to plead with his friend to come back inside after he threatened to jump from the balcony.

Mr. Hadani said that as three officers were on top of Mr. Andreichikov and pressing his face on the carpet, his friend said he couldn't breathe. But an officer responded that if he was mumbling, he was breathing.

Constable Hall testified that when an officer alerted him that Mr. Andreichikov had stopped breathing, he tried to clear the man's airways. He said he never heard Mr. Andreichikov complain about not being able to breathe.

Two other officers who testified yesterday said they did not hear any complaints from the victim.

In fact, Constable Hall said the man was incoherent during the encounter. Constable Hall fired two shots of 50,000 volts each at Mr. Andreichikov.

Jurors have not yet heard toxicology results, but his family has said they did not know Mr. Andreichikov was an active drug user.

His girlfriend, Jamie Layno, who had testified at the start of the inquest this week, said Mr. Andreichikov had been using cocaine for five days straight and suffering from paranoia and delusions.

The Vancouver Police have faced criticism from families of victims and some community-rights groups over the use of tasers to subdue individuals.

Just one month after Mr. Andreichikov's death, another man, Robert Bagnell, died after he was hit with a taser.

Man too much to handle, taser inquest told

November 30, 2005
PETTI FONG, Globe and Mail

Vancouver — Roman Andreichikov was so strong and unwilling to comply with police commands that he bucked off a 175-pound police officer with his legs while two others held down his upper body, a coroner's inquest heard Tuesday.

When police responded to a 911 call that Mr. Andreichikov was suicidal, the fitness trainer looked so massive and imposing that within seconds of seeing him sitting on a couch, Vancouver police Constable Dave Hall said he decided to draw his taser from its holster.

Constable Hall and his partner Marc Bouchey entered the Granville Street apartment when Mr. Andreichikov, 25, was upset and on Day 5 of a cocaine binge. A friend had called to say the fitness trainer had attempted to commit suicide twice.

On the witness stand Tuesday at the inquest into Mr. Andreichikov's death on May 1, 2004, Constable Hall said he tried to control Mr. Andreichikov's legs while two other officers who arrived moments later attempted to control his upper body.

But Constable Hall, who is 5'11 inches and 175 pounds, said Mr. Andreichikov easily lifted the officer off him with his legs and threw him about two feet.

The five-person jury is hearing evidence in the inquest about the circumstances that led Constable Hall to use his taser.

Mr. Andreichikov stopped breathing and died within moments of being hit with two electrical shocks.

Constable Hall said after he was thrown off and then showed Constable Bouchey a better technique to control the man's lower body, the other police officer still had trouble.

At 220 pounds and 6'3 inches, Constable Bouchey was larger than Mr. Andreichikov, who Constable Hall said he at first believed was about the same weight as his partner at 220 pounds, but six inches shorter.

Autopsy results showed Mr. Andreichikov was 5'6 inches and 160 pounds.

But Constable Hall said that when he and his partner first entered the apartment and saw Mr. Andreichikov, he didn't have time to gauge the man's height and weight adequately. He was more concerned, he told the jury, about the man's agitated state.

“I could see how hard he was flexing his body. He wasn't sitting still. He was shaking and vibrating,” said Constable Hall. “With the clenching of the jaw, the fast breathing, the sounds. It was hard to describe. It was so primal.”

The officer said based on his experience, he believed the man was in a drug-induced psychosis.

Constable Hall said he once saw a 300-pound police officer, one of the biggest guys on the police force, lose a physical encounter with a 130-pound teenager in a similar agitated state. It took six police officers to control the skinny youth.

In his day-long testimony, Constable Hall, who had received his taser 10 days before the May 1 incident and was testing it in the field, said he tried to calm Mr. Andreichikov. He said he feared that the man was going to run for the balcony and try to leap off again.

Rahim Hadani said he visited Mr. Andreichikov that day and got caught in the middle of a fight he was having with his girlfriend. Mr. Hadani convinced the girlfriend to leave and tried to calm his friend down, but twice, Mr. Hadani said he had to plead with his friend to come back inside after he threatened to jump from the balcony.

In his testimony earlier, Mr. Hadani said that as three officers were on Mr. Andreichikov and pressed his face on the carpet, his friend said he couldn't breathe. But an officer responded that if he was mumbling, he was breathing.

Constable Hall testified that when an officer alerted him that Mr. Andreichikov had stopped breathing, he tried to clear the man's airways. He said he never heard Mr. Andreichikov complain about not being able to breathe.

In fact, Constable Hall said the man was incoherent during the encounter. Constable Hall fired two shots of 50,000 volts each at Mr. Andreichikov.

Jurors have not heard yet what caused Mr. Andreichikov's death. The Vancouver police has faced criticism over its use of tasers in subduing individuals by families of victims and some community rights groups.

Just one month after Mr. Andreichikov's death, another man, Robert Bagnell died after he was tasered.

Inquest on taser death reopens debate on use

November 29, 2005
PETTI FONG, Globe & Mail

VANCOUVER -- Personal trainer Roman Andreichikov was on Day 5 of a cocaine binge when, paranoid and distraught over the mistaken idea his girlfriend starred in a porn movie, he tried to jump over his apartment balcony twice.

But his suicide attempts failed, and when a friend called 911 for help, police arrived. The first officer through the door of the apartment had his taser ready for firing.

A coroner's inquest into Mr. Andreichikov's death on May 1, 2004, began yesterday, reopening the debate about police use of tasers. Just one month after Mr. Andreichikov, 25, stopped breathing in his apartment after a taser shot in the chest, Robert Wayne Bagnell, 44, died shortly after he was hit with a taser.

In both cases, police said they were dealing with individuals in cocaine-induced psychosis.

It took four officers to subdue Mr. Andreichikov, a part-time model and personal trainer who was so fit, a friend described him as looking "pumped all the time."

One officer held Mr. Andreichikov's head down on the carpet, another had his knee pressed against the slight but muscular man's back, a third officer handcuffed him and a fourth was holding his legs. Even then, Mr. Andreichikov proved too strong for police.

Testifying at the inquest, Mr. Andreichikov's friend, Rahim Hadini, said he talked the victim back from the ledge when he twice tried to leap from his balcony. When Mr. Hadini first arrived to visit his friend, Mr. Andreichikov was paranoid and fighting with his girlfriend, Jaimie Layno, accusing her of being in a porn movie.

Mr. Hadini said he persuaded Ms. Layno to leave and tried to talk to Mr. Andreichikov, who was dry-mouthed and incoherent. After Mr. Andreichikov tried to jump off the ledge, Mr. Hadini said he called for an ambulance and police showed up. After ordering Mr. Andreichikov to lie down, police tried to subdue him and shot him with a taser gun.

"He was screaming and mumbling that he couldn't breathe," Mr. Hadini said. "The guy holding his head to the carpet said if you're mumbling, you're breathing." A moment later, Mr. Hadini said, his friend was unconscious.

Police statements described Mr. Andreichikov as being like a caged wild animal, who, even after being shot with the taser gun, resisted attempts to subdue him by yelling, kicking and shaking his arms uncontrollably.

Kevin Woodall, the lawyer representing the officer who shot the taser gun, said Mr. Hadini's statement indicates the exchange about whether Mr. Andreichikov was still breathing and the response that if he was mumbling, he still had breath, was actually made between two officers and not between the victim and an officer.

In the past two years, five people in B.C. have died after being shocked with a taser, and the province's chief coroner has called on police to look for other ways to deal with people in a condition known as "excited delirium."

The five-person coroner's jury hasn't yet heard any evidence about toxicology results for Mr. Andreichikov. His girlfriend testified yesterday that he had been using cocaine in each of the five days before his death.

Ms. Layno said she begged Mr. Andreichikov to quit and even tried at one point to get him into a rehabilitation program. She left their apartment on May 1 after their friend convinced her to leave for a couple of hours. When she received a frantic phone call to come home, she arrived just in time to see her boyfriend's body being wheeled out.

Earlier this fall, the Victoria police department released a report on taser use recommending more training and to use it only when a person is actively resisting arrest or poses a threat to others. The report also recommended a person shocked by a taser should be restrained in a way that allows the individual to breathe easily.

Mr. Andreichikov's mother, Diana Andreichikov, said there is no reason why tasers should ever be used.

"He was never violent in his life. He was never dangerous to anybody," said Ms. Andreichikov outside the inquest. She admitted to being shocked to hear her son was using drugs.

Woman claims cops used stun gun on her

November 25, 2005
CBC News

What constitutes excessive force is a central issue at the trial of two Halifax police officers who are charged with assaulting a female prisoner with a Taser gun.

One night in September 2004, two police officers arrested Suzanne Silver for allegedly uttering death threats. She claims that veteran constables John Hope and Mark Galloway pushed their way into her mother's house and manhandled her.

By the time Silver was brought into the booking area at police headquarters, she was in a rage. As police surveillance cameras rolled, Silver launched into an uninterrupted tirade against the officers.

Then one of the officers threatened to use a Taser on her.

The hand-held stun guns deliver a jolt of electricity from up to 6.5 metres away. The shot can penetrate up to five centimetres of clothing, immobilizing the person targeted.

Silver was taken to a holding cell, where an altercation occurred. She claims she was hit with a Taser four times.

Galloway and Hope are charged with assault and committing an assault by carrying, using or threatening to use a weapon.

Crown attorney Darrell Carmichael says the case revolves around two questions:

"The first issue is whether the police officers entered that home lawfully and so were entitled to use force against Suzanne Silver, and the second issue is, if they were entitled to use force, did they use no more than reasonable force," he said.

One of the defence lawyers, Pat Duncan, says the officers acted properly.

"The defence will be advocating to the court that the arrest was lawful and that any use of force was appropriate to the circumstance," she said.

The trial has heard only the Crown's case. The two officers are expected to testify in their own defence when it resumes.

Use of taser at demo ruled 'unnecessary'

November 10, 2005
CBC News

An Ottawa police officer was found guilty Wednesay of "unnecessary exercise of authority." The Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services heard evidence from a man who was shot with a taser at a demonstration two years ago.

Paul Smith had arrived at a demonstration outside the office of Citizenship and Immigration Canada in downtown Ottawa just after 9 p.m., May 29, 2003.

About 50 people had turned out to protest the plight of 10 Algerian refugee claimants inside the office. Smith says he was taking pictures from the sidelines when two officers approached him.

"I have witnesses who say I wasn't doing anything. This guy wanted to get a protester," Smith says.

The commission heard that one officer held and handcuffed Smith, and then asked for help from another officer. That's when Sgt. Paulo Batista arrived and shot Smith with a taser gun as he lay on the ground. Smith was jolted a second time as he was dragged toward a police cruiser.

An internal police investigation originally cleared both officers. But Smith appealed that decision, and, on Wednesday, the independent commission found Batista guilty of using unnecessary force when he tasered Smith. The other officer was found "not guilty."

Smith's lawyer, Matthew McGarvey, says the process for people in Smith's situation is stacked in favour of the police.

For Paul Smith, there is no financial settlement attached to Wednesday's ruling. But, he says, it's reward enough to be vindicated.

A Shocking Defense

October 31, 2005
Elizabeth MacDonald, Forbes

New court documents contain awkward disclosures for the president of stun gun maker Taser International.

Taser International, The Under-siege stun gun maker whose stock soared sixtyfold in three years only to plunge 80% amid short-seller raids, shareholder class actions and wrongful- death lawsuits, has had another shock to the system.

Newly unsealed court documents in a personal injury case against Taser have President Thomas Smith detailing which current and former cops got stock options in Taser in exchange for essentially endorsing its line of guns, which temporarily paralyze suspects with a blast of electrical currents.

The options controversy first erupted in 2004, when President George W. Bush picked Bernard Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, to run the Homeland Security Department. It then emerged that Taser had paid Kerik 85,000 options to join its board. Kerik says he promoted the gun to law enforcement and made more than $6 million on the options. Taser had repeatedly refused to disclose which other cops got the stock incentives.

But in September an Arizona state court judge unsealed records in a lawsuit filed by SECInsight, a research firm in Plymouth, Minn., And the Arizona Republicnewspaper. The records show Taser handed out almost 30,000 stock options to 11 people from 2001 to 2003, when Taser shares ranged from a low of 31 cents to a high of $8. The options, valued at $210,000 when they were issued, would have risen in value as Taser shares climbed as high as $33 by December 2004.

Seven of the 11 recipients are current and former police officers: All were in cities that bought stun guns.In Seattle, Wash. and Chandler and Glendale, Ariz. police departments bought Tasers during the options handouts. In Sacramento, Calif., New York City and Austin, Tex. departments had bought the stun guns before the cops got involved. The officers could not be reached for comment. Victoria, B.C. also bought Tasers.

Five of the cops served on a Taser advisory board on training police departments nationwide to use the stun gun, resulting in some sales. One officer in Chandler was accused by his superiors of a conflict of interest; the complaint was dropped. Still, "How can it not be a conflict of interest for Taser to use options as payola to police officers or medical experts, who then plug the company's product?" says John Gavin, president of SEC Insight.

The disclosures are another annoyance for Taser, of Scottsdale, Ariz., which also contends with an accounting investigation by the Securities & Exchange Commission, two class actions and 32 personal-injury torts, 13 of which allege wrongful deaths.

The latest court filings also show Taser gave 775 stock options to Darren Laur, a Victoria law enforcement official, for designing a gun holster. Laur co-wrote two medical reports praising the safety of the stun gun. Taser touts both reports on its Web site without revealing that Laur held options. Laur, who exercised and sold his options in 2003, says he made his superiors aware of his holdings and made the disclosure in a separate study.

Smith defends the options payments, saying Taser "didn't have the cash flow needed to pay these officers to do free training work." He also admitted in court that he didn't know whether Taser has a code of ethics or what it says. For that he need only read the Taser Web site:It says all employees are expected to read, understand and uphold the ethics policy and "avoid situations where a conflict of interest might occur."

Robert Bagnell becomes a case study at CACOLE Conference in Montreal

October 2005
CACOLE Conference, Montreal
Presentation by Victoria Chief of Police Paul Battershill

Taser jolts didn't lead directly to man's death

October 15, 2005
IAN DEMSKY, The Tennessean

Metro announces Patrick Lee's cause of death

October 14, 2005
By Bill Harless, Nashville City Paper

The state and Metro investigation of the Sept. 24 death of Patrick Lee has concluded, officials announced Friday.

The cause of death of Patrick Lee has been ruled as "Excited Delirium" and the manner of death could not be determined, according to a statement released jointly by the state and Metro medical examiners offices.

Lee died of cardiac arrest at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center a day after police shot him multiple times with a Taser the previous night at the Mercy Lounge music club.

Excited delirium is a condition under which "people who are under the influence of certain drugs or suffer from some types of mental illness suffer a cardiorespiratory arrest after a period of agitated and bizarre behavior," the statement said.

"This sudden cardiorespiratory arrest typically occurs after the person is subdued and restrained by either law enforcement or medical personnel, and happens with the use of many different restraint techniques."

LSD and marijuana were found in Lee's blood. "LSD intoxication is a known cause of excited delirium," the statement said.

"There is no evidence that any of the restraint techniques used that night on Mr. Lee by the Metro Police, including the Taser, directly caused Mr. Lee's cardiac arrest and death," said Davidson County medical examiner Bruce Levy in the statement.

"However, the combined effects of multiple applications of the Taser, pepper spray and physical force on someone in excited delirium are unclear and require additional research."

Police chief Ronald Serpas has directed the department to develop a "best practices" guide for officers when they encounter people with excited delirium.

Taser changes marketing language

October 1, 2005
Beth DeFalco, Associated Press

Taser International Inc. has voluntarily changed some of its broad safety claims and limited its use of the word "non-lethal" in an effort to appease Arizona officials concerned about possibly misleading marketing, officials said Wednesday.

The move by the nation's largest maker of stun guns comes as the Securities and Exchange Commission investigates the company and as the Arizona Attorney General's Office conducts its own inquiry into safety claims.

On Tuesday, Taser said the SEC had stepped up an informal inquiry and was conducting an expanded official investigation of claims Taser has made about safety studies; an end-of-year sale analysts have questioned because it appeared to inflate sales to meet annual projections; and the possibility that outsiders acquired internal company information to manipulate the stock price.

In January, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said his office was probing claims Taser has made about safety studies on its products.

Taser President Tom Smith said company officials met with the Attorney General's Office several times since January and have made changes to the way they characterize the weapon's safety to consumers.

According to Taser and the Attorney General's Office, the stun gun maker submitted a list of language changes the company has already made, including an 18-point "product warning."

Among the changes, Taser explains that it uses the term non-lethal as defined by the Department of Defense - which doesn't mean the weapon can't cause death, but that it's not intended to be fatal.

Other changes include substituting the phrase "leave no lasting after effects" to "are more effective and safer than other use-of-force options."

Taser began marketing police stun guns in 1998 as a way to subdue combative people in high-risk situations. Now, more than 8,000 law enforcement agencies and military installations use them worldwide.

But critics say the stun guns have been used too liberally by police and have contributed to scores of deaths. Amnesty International has compiled a list of more than 100 people the group says have died after being shocked in scuffles with lawmen.

Taser maintains that no deaths have been directly caused by the weapon alone.

Company shares fell 47 cents, or 7.4 percent, to close at $5.88 Wednesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market, a new 52-week low.