Local TASER lawsuit dropped

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit Wednesday against the manufacturer of TASER guns -- the high-voltage stun guns used for police compliance. \nJames L. Borden, a Bedford man, died in police custody Nov. 6, 2003. His family received $500,000 from Monroe and Lawrence counties in a civil suit Jan. 19 but did not recover a settlement from TASER International, Inc. \nThis is the fifth wrongful death or injury lawsuit filed against TASER International that has been dismissed in the past 18 months. Vice President Steve Tuttle said the suits never come to fruition because TASER International is not responsible for long-term suffering of victims. \n"Being in the business we are, (having cases filed against us) is fairly normal," Tuttle said. "I can't think of many pepper spray, handgun or other weapon industries that don't go through the same thing, and I would guess that we receive fewer of those complaints than the others." \nTuttle said TASER International is not comparable to other police weapons. \n"TASER technology is not risk-free," Tuttle conceded, "but in terms of comparisons to any other use of force, it is clearly the safer alternative." \nBut Dr. Roland M. Kohr, the coroner who performed the autopsy on Borden, said TASER International lacks the test results to back up its claim.\nIn Kohr's report, he concluded Borden's death resulted from cardiac arrest, caused by "pharmacologic intoxication and electrical shock." \nKohr said Borden had traces of two drugs in his body at the time of the stun gun incident -- pseudoephedrine, a mild stimulant, and an antihistamine, a depressant. \n"TASER (International) has used drugs as an explanation of how they think Borden died, but he was conscious all the way to Bedford," Kohr said. \nKohr believes the electrical shock from the stun gun was "the straw that broke the camel's back." \nWhen asked if Tuttle thought the excessive use of a stun gun could cause bodily harm, he explained it was conceivable but sometimes necessary. \n"Multiple applications of electrical shock are sometimes not only necessary but crucial to the resolving of a use-of-force situation," Tuttle said. \nKohr said TASER International can't have it both ways. \n"(The company) says (TASER guns) are very powerful, but when it comes to hurting someone, it's harmless," Kohr said. \nTuttle claims the effect of electrical shock lasts only the duration of the firing. Kohr is skeptical. \nTASER stun guns temporarily cause a disruption in the nervous system, causing all of the muscles to go limp. \n"They've never explained why it doesn't affect the heart," Kohr said. "They just say, 'We've said it doesn't, so it doesn't.'" \nBut Tuttle insists the "low power" of the stun gun's electric shock cannot damage cardiac tissue. \nKohr said that still doesn't clarify what happens when the heart's electrical cycle is interrupted by stun gun electrical impulses. While some shocks like defibrillators can jumpstart a heart, at the wrong stage of the heart's electrical cycle, a shock can just as easily stop a beating heart, he explains. \nIn a press release titled "Coroner Admits Comments Were Reckless in Deposition" issued by TASER International, the company heavily criticized the method of Kohr's autopsy, blaming him for not taking enough time with his analysis, not knowing the effects of TASER stun guns and not considering the surrounding events leading up to Borden's death. \nThe press release also insinuated Kohr regretted claiming an electrical shock contributed to the victim's death.\n"I never said that," Kohr said. \nHe went on to say he was thorough in his analysis and had considered many implications. \n"It's very complicated," Kohr said. "First I say, 'I've got an enlarged heart here, but (the victim has) had it for years and didn't die until that day. I've got drugs on board, but he was still functioning. At some point he was shocked and stopped breathing. One moment he's conscious, one moment he's not. Now, is that pure coincidence?" \nKohr said in his field, he has to assume there is a relationship. He provided an example of something he called "homicide by heart attack." \n"A little old lady, like your grandma, goes to the bank, and a robber in a mask threatens to shoot her," he said. "All the sudden, she collapses. Even a layman would have the common sense to see that there was a relationship between being scared by the robber and dying. You have to acknowledge the contributing factors." \nBorden's death occurred in 2003, when the Monroe County Correctional Center was booking him for violating his probation issued in Lawrence County. \nEmergency Medical Services reports said Borden was incoherent and disoriented when he was arrested, yet he did not receive medical attention -- against the advice of paramedics on the scene. \nMonroe County Officer David Shaw shocked Borden three times with a stun gun for "uncooperative" behavior, according to police reports. \nBorden's family has mourned his death for the past two years. \n"TASERs have cost our family a member," said Troy Borden, the brother of James Borden, in a March 10, 2004 Indiana Daily Student article. "(They) need to be put away until (they're) looked into"