Police Brutality Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed after Taser Use

A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against Los Angeles County and Taser International by the family of a man who died in 2007 after an arrest by the County Sherriff’s office, where he was shocked more than 10 times with a Taser.

Also commonly referred to as stun guns, Tasers are weapons that deliver a 50,000-volt shock using an Electro-Muscular Disruption technology, designed to incapacitate neuromuscular function.

Many police and law enforcement agencies throughout the United States have begun carrying these weapons as a means to subdue people who pose a threat without use of a firearm.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the Taser lawsuit was filed by the wife of Cesar Silva, who died in November 2007. The complaint alleges that sheriff’s deputies used far more force than was necessary to detain the un-armed Silva, and that Taser failed to adequately warn of the weapon’s potential for being lethal.

Silva died following an arrest on a disturbance call in South Los Angeles involving at least five deputies. The wrongful death police brutality lawsuit indicates that deputies beat Silva with a flashlight and shocked him more than 10 times with a Taser. Silva was not carrying any weapons at the time of the arrest.

The autopsy performed by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office listed the cause of death as “agitated delirium.” The condition, which is also referred to as “excited delirium,” is regularly cited as a cause of death for individuals apprehended by police who are acting in an irrational and hyperactive manner and subsequently die in custody. It is a controversial designation, as it is commonly used following deaths from Tasering.

 
The widespread overuse of Tasers has generated a lot of criticism from civil rights groups, as more than 320 Taser deaths have been associated with the use of the stun guns since 2001.

Taser International has been a party to more than 70 wrongful death lawsuits involving the use of their weapon, but they have been remarkably successful defending themselves in court. In nearly every case where they have been named as a defendant, Taser lawyers have successfully gotten the company dismissed from the litigation.

Most recently, Taser International, Inc. was dismissed from a lawsuit pending in the a U.S. District Court in Georgia, where the Court ruled that the plaintiffs could not prove that the company’s device caused the Plaintiff’s death.