COUNTY CORONER'S OFFICE KEEPING CLOSE EYE ON FATAL CHICAGO TASER CASE

In a case similar to three separate deaths involving Las Vegas police
officers armed with Tasers, a medical examiner in Chicago determined that a
Taser killed a man who was high on drugs when he fought with police.

The July 28 finding was the first in the country in which the 50,000-volt
stun gun was determined to be the primary cause of death, and it comes
after uncertain Clark County medical examiners failed to single out the
devices in the deaths of three men since February 2004.

"We are watching the information coming out of the Chicago medical
examiner's office very closely," county Coroner Mike Murphy said last week.
"We have been in contact with them, and we have asked them to forward to us
their information so we can review it. The cases we have seen are similar;
the use of the Taser, the use of restraint procedures and the presence of
drugs."

Las Vegas police Deputy Chief Mike Ault said the department about six weeks
ago implemented new policies aimed at reducing potential injuries from Tasers.

And the department no longer refers to the weapons as "nonlethal," as it
had since purchasing hundreds of the devices in December 2003. The
department also no longer stuns officers as part of their training because
too many officers suffered injuries.

"We have found out that the original policy we provided (officers) wasn't
the best policy to give our officers direction," Ault said. "We don't say
the Taser is nonlethal. We say it has a low-lethality potential."

Taser critic Gary Peck, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of
Nevada, said the department's new policies are inadequate and not enforced
and that the Chicago medical examiner's ruling underscores the need for
more caution.

For example, Peck said, months after Sheriff Bill Young altered the
department's policy to prohibit using the Taser on handcuffed subjects,
police used the Taser to subdue a handcuffed but combative Russell Walker
moments before he died June 6.

"It (the Chicago ruling) is yet another indication that these weapons
should be considered powerful, dangerous and potentially deadly," Peck
said. "Unfortunately, local law enforcement agencies refuse to
straightforwardly acknowledge these facts and implement responsible
policies consistent with them."

After the July 8 inquest into Walker's death, Young said the department was
reviewing its Taser policies for a third time. But Walker's death was the
result of a drug overdose, not the Taser or the actions of officers, he said.

"They were trying to handle a guy who was out of his mind, acting like an
animal and fighting with them all the way," he said.

When the trigger is pulled, the Taser propels two darts into a suspect. The
fishhook-size projections, at the end of 15-foot cables, send 50,000 volts
of current through the target's body.

According to Arizona-based Taser International, more than 7,000 military
and law enforcement agencies are either testing or using the weapon.

Las Vegas police acquired Tasers after a department review found that
officers had exceeded the average among 10 similarly sized departments in
incidents involving use of deadly force.

As with the death in February in Chicago, the three deaths in Las Vegas
involved men with high levels of a street drug in their blood, a struggle
with police and the use of a Taser.

Unlike the local cases, police in Chicago struck 54-year-old Ronald Hasse
with a Taser blast for 57 seconds, far longer than the five-second shock
transmitted when the trigger is pulled and released.

In the three Las Vegas cases, the victims had been struck with the Taser
seven times, four times and three times, respectively. In those cases, each
shock from the Taser lasted between two seconds and eight seconds,
according to police records.

Until Las Vegas police changed training procedures in June, department
instructors since December 2003 had told officers it was appropriate to
shock a combative subject repeatedly and for a prolonged period with a Taser.

That early training was based on protocol provided by Taser International,
Ault said.

Taser International, in a June 28 "training update" to police departments,
for the first time acknowledged that prolonged or repeated exposure to the
electrical shock can impair a person's ability to breathe.

"We have adjusted our training in accordance with the latest research, and
that is that you should try to avoid repeated or prolonged use of the
Taser," Ault said.

Asked whether officers are now prohibited from shocking a subject for up to
a minute, Ault said officers will not be hamstrung by regulations. The
circumstances will dictate how and when a Taser will be used, such as if an
officer's life is in danger or if a Taser is preferable to use of a baton,
he said.

"We don't want repeated or prolonged Tasings unless the circumstances give
us no alternatives," he said.

Scott Denton, assistant medical examiner for Cook County, Ill., for nine
years and a member of the board of directors of the National Association of
Medical Examiners, determined the primary cause in Hasse's death was
electrocution from the Taser, with a contributing factor being
methamphetamine intoxica-tion.

Denton blamed the electrical charge in Hasse's death, even though he had
more than the lethal limit of the drug in his blood.

The electrical shock from the Taser contracts the muscles and, as a result,
impairs a person's ability to breathe. With his blood pressure and pulse
racing in response to the drugs and the struggle with police, Hasse died
because he couldn't breathe during the period of time he was being shocked,
Denton said.

Had the Taser not been used for such an extended time, Hasse probably
wouldn't have died, Denton said.

An autopsy found Hasse had 0.55 micrograms of methamphetamine per
milliliter in his blood -- just above what is considered a lethal level.

"At the end of that 57 seconds, he was on the floor exhausted, and then he
became unconscious and was unable to be resuscitated," Denton said. "You're
causing muscular paralysis, so the person isn't breathing. So, during that
57 seconds, he wasn't breathing."

Denton said it took him five months to determine the cause of death because
he did exhaustive research on Tasers before reaching his conclusion.

Chicago police stopped the distribution of an additional 200 Tasers after
Hasse died. But it did not halt the use of the weapons.

Denton said he believes much is still not known about the medical effects
of the Taser, but that more information will be coming out because medical
examiners, police officials and others are now taking a close look at the
devices.

"Who is dying from Tasers? It's people on drugs and people who are getting
multiple bursts or a burst for a prolonged period of time," Denton said.

Taser International spokesman Steve Tuttle said he was bewildered by both
Denton's finding and the fact the level of drugs in Hasse's body wasn't
viewed as the primary factor in his death.

"We would like to know the medical basis of the finding," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.