Court orders medical records scrubbed on taser deaths

By Libby

Raw Story reports on the lastest inching towards the police state with this blessing of the courts.

A Summit County Common Pleas judge ordered the county medical examiner to delete any reference that Tasers contributed to the deaths of three Ohio men. [...]

Five sheriff's deputies had been indicted on charges related to the death of one of the men, who also had a history of mental illness. The judge further ordered that man's death be ruled as "undetermined" and to "delete any references to homicide and the death possibly being caused by asphyxia, beatings or other factors."

The court hearing centered around the "very narrow issue" of whether or not the use of the Taser Model X26 could contributed in any way to the cause of death.

I'm not a lawyer, but it sounds like the decision fairly overstepped the narrow issue with the ruling on all references to possible police misconduct. Which brings up this video Paul Wright sent me about the LA prison riot. The most disturbing bit comes at the end when we're blithely told that the Emergency Response Team isn't confined to quelling prison violence but is cross-training to "go out on the streets."

Taser Corp., not unexpectedly is lauding the decision. Funny how the corporation has such a remarkable record in avoiding liability in deaths after tasering. Radley adds context to that point.

Taser would rather medical examiners attribute such deaths to “excited delirium,” a vague condition relatively unheard of in medical research before the advent of the Taser, but that now seems to be a frequent cause of death in Taser-related cases–but totally unrelated to the actual Tasering, of course. Coincidentally, Taser is apparently also shoveling money at researchers willing to lend medical bona-fides to the “excited delirium” theory.

Taser, Blackwater, ERTs, SWAT team raids for routine crimes -- start putting all the pieces together and it surely begins to look like fascism to me. As I've become fond of saying lately, just because you're not doing anything wrong, doesn't mean they won't someday come to get you anyway.

Comments

[BJ]

I saw this yesterday at The Galloping Beaver. The story Alison quoted from paints an even worse picture than you've got.

Schneiderman, quoting passages from [medical examiner, Dr. Lisa J.]Kohler's autopsy report on McCullaugh, stated that his death ''shall be ruled undetermined and any reference to death by 'asphyxia due to the combined effects of chemical, mechanical and electrical restraint,' as well as any reference to 'homicide' due to 'multiple restraint mechanisms with beating and anal penetration' shall be deleted from both the death certificate and the Report of Autopsy.''

I'm guessing the whole "homicide" due to "anal penetration" thing is part of those "other factors" Raw Story didn't get to in detail. Shudder-inducing in any case.

[Libby]

It gets more horrifying every day BJ.