The Associated Press reports:
A medical examiner must change her autopsy findings to delete any reference that stun guns contributed to the deaths of three people involved in confrontations with law enforcement officers, a judge ruled.
Friday's decision was a victory for Taser International Inc., which had challenged rulings by Summit County Medical Examiner Lisa Kohler, including a case in which five sheriff's deputies are charged in the death a jail inmate who was restrained by the wrists and ankles and hit with pepper spray and a stun gun.
Kohler ruled that the 2006 death of Mark McCullaugh Jr., 28, was a homicide and that he died from asphyxiation due to the ``combined effects of chemical, mechanical and electrical restraint.''
Visiting Judge Ted Schneiderman said in his ruling that there was no expert evidence to indicate that Taser devices impaired McCullaugh's respiration. ``More likely, the death was due to a fatal cardiac arrhythmia brought on by severe heart disease,'' the judge wrote.
Schneiderman ordered Kohler to rule McCullaugh's death undetermined and to delete any references to homicide.
The judge also said references to stun guns contributing to the
deaths of two other men must be deleted from autopsy findings. Dennis
Hyde, 30, died in 2005 after a confrontation with Akron police, and
Richard Holcomb, 18, died the same year after being hit with a stun by
a police officer in suburban Springfield Township.
John Manley, a Summit County prosecutor who represented
Kohler, said the judge's order went too far. The county is considering
an appeal, he said.
``Taser is quite a force to be reckoned with and does
everything to protect their golden egg, which is the Model X26,''
Manley said.
That blue wall of silence just got a little thicker...corrupt judge protects pigs and money interests...what else is new?
Obviously this judge is in the wrong field. He's exactly the sort of expert we need in the morgues. What makes these "medical examiners" so special anyway? What qualifies them to determine a person's cause of death? All autopsies should go to trial from now on so we don't end up with these medically trained jackasses shoveling more of this "objective truth" down our throats.
quote: What qualifies them to determine a person's cause of death?
how about years of study?
the judge studied law and not medicine. so what is his excuse to be a bigger jackass ? (by your definition)
I am not a lawyer or a doctor, but i know enough that electricity and bodies don't mix well, and its bollocks to say there is no chance a combination of attacks/defenses used couldnt have added to impaired respiration..
ever seen someone that takes a small shock? (think electric fence) .. muscles contract and you can not stop your body from doing so - period (watch the brainiac simple tests to see if you can do 'random activity' while getting small shocks - all failed but made entertaining tv)
there are loads of muscles in your body, and i can perfectly envision a person having a hard time breathing while getting sprayed and receiving shocks - you do realise tazers are a bit more powerfull as your regular electric fence to keep cows in ? - and being restrained by several people ...
but yeh.. go ahead and think what you want
I would bet money the second commenter was being sarcastic :/
The judge was probably paid off, the three men probably DID die from being tased, and the judge telling the medical examiner to not use words inferring homicide was ridiculous. It sounds like yet another public service official is in the business of being "bought".
this is not the judges fault, he was constrained by statute. this is one case where the law is indeed and ass.