Articles Posted in Wrongful Death

An Oregon wrongful death lawsuit has been filed in federal court in the wake of last year’s death of a 30 year old Salem man who had been subdued by police officers using tasers. The family of Gregory Rold is seeking $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $4.5 million in punitive damages from the City of Salem, four of its police officers and 10 other municipal employees, according to the Salem Statesman-Journal.

According to the Statesman-Journal, Rold died last May after being taken into custody by the Salem police following a trespassing complaint. When he resisted arrest, police subdued Rold with batons and the taser, according to the newspaper. Shortly after being taken into custody, however, Rold stopped breathing. Paramedics took him to a Salem hospital where he was pronounced dead. A Marion County Grand Jury later cleared the officers involved of wrongdoing, ruling that “police officers were justified in using physical force to arrest Rold,” the newspaper reported. A state medical examiner ruled the death accidental.

In an article distributed by Courthouse News Service, Rold’s mother says her son was schizophrenic, and that officers used the tasers on him for a full 2 minutes and later knelt on him as he lay face-down. According to the Statesman-Journal, the family’s Oregon wrongful death lawsuit “claims that Rold’s civil rights were violated, that police officers were negligent in causing Rold’s death and excessive force was used against Rold.”

Oregon State Police are working with officials from the Marion County Medical Examiner’s office to investigate an Oregon accidental death in Silver Falls State Park, near Silverton and Salem.

According to the Salem-News, a 22 year old man died last week when he “fell Saturday afternoon from an edge overlooking the Drake Falls area” of the park. The paper quotes the OSP saying state troopers and EMTs were summoned to the park immediately after the accident, but the victim was pronounced dead at the scene. Police are also looking for what the paper describes as “an unknown hiker” who may have witnessed the Oregon fatal accident.

Any Oregon fatal accident raises questions about liability. Just because a death is an accident does not mean that, as a matter of law, no one is legally responsible. Indeed, seeking legal advice is always a good idea in the wake of a Portland accidental death. An Oregon personal injury lawyer can advise accident victims and their families on the details of Oregon’s wrongful death laws, and help determine whether a particular accident leaves justice waiting to be served.

Clackamas County officials have reached a settlement in the Sandy wrongful death suit filed by the family of Fouad Kaady, who was shot by Clackamas County police in 2005 while “unarmed, naked, burned and bleeding” according to The Oregonian.

According to the newspaper, settlement of the high profile Oregon wrongful death case involved no admission of wrongdoing on the part of police. County officials are quoted describing their decision to settle as “a purely business decision made by the insurance carrier”. Local media reports indicate Kaady’s family settled out-of-court for $1 million in an effort to spare themselves the trauma of a trial.

The events leading to Kaady’s September 2005 death began when a gas can exploded in his car, causing him to suffer severe burns over much of his body. He may also have sustained a traumatic head injury as a result of the car accident tied to the gas can’s explosion. Officers responding to reports of a naked man in the Sandy area tried to subdue Kaady when they found him. They are reported to have hit him with two taser blasts to little effect. He was shot seven times after climbing onto the roof of a police car. Witnesses described him as unarmed and non-life threatening, but police and county officials have steadfastly defended their actions.

An Oregon wrongful death lawsuit filed by a mother from Keizer earlier this year looks more timely than ever now that the Consumer Product Safety Commission has warned consumers to avoid baby slings. The Keizer wrongful death lawsuit was reported by The Oregonian.

According to CBS News the CPSC issued its baby sling warning after examining 20 years of data on the safety of baby slings. “The CPSC identified and is investigating at least 14 deaths associated with sling-style carriers, including three in 2009,” according to the network. The Keizer incident, which occurred last year, is presumably one of those referenced in the study.

As CBS notes, baby slings are very popular with new parents and the market for the products has been growing in recent years. The CPSC, however, has concluded that “slings can pose two different types of suffocation hazards for babies.” They can press against an infant’s nose and mouth “suffocating a baby within a minute or two,” the agency says. Alternately, “where a sling keeps the infant in a curled position bending the chin toward the chest, the airways can be restricted, limiting the oxygen supply. The baby will not be able to cry for help and can slowly suffocate,” a CPSC news release states.

The death of a North Carolina teenager shortly after he returned home from football practice has led his parents to file a wrongful death lawsuit. At a time when Oregon is focusing more attention on head injuries stemming from student athletics this tragedy on the other side of the country is a reminder that concussions and traumatic brain injuries are not the only things parents – particularly the parents of student-athletes – need to worry about.

According to the Durham Herald-Sun the 17 year old high school football player called 911 from home after experiencing stomach cramps following practice. A paramedic and a fourth-year medical student examined him “and advised him to continue to drink fluids.” The two rescue workers then left him alone. The teenager died a short time later. The incident, which took place in August 2008, has now led to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the boy’s parents against the paramedic, county emergency services and the county government. The official cause of death has not been released, according to the Herald-Sun.

It would be wrong to discount the enormously important, and sometimes dangerous, jobs that paramedics and other emergency responders perform every day. This story is also, however, a reminder that when serious mistakes, or negligence, occur it is important that those responsible be held to account.

An Oregon state report has raised questions about the conduct of state officials prior to the death of a Eugene teenager.

15 year old Jeanette Maples was killed December 9, according to an Associated Press report republished by TV station KMTR. Her parents have been charged with aggravated murder (they have pleaded not guilty). In the wake of the incident state officials began investigating whether their agencies failed to act in a timely manner that might have prevented the teen’s death. This week’s report by the Oregon Department of Human Services is critical of the state agency’s conduct. AP reports the document says Maples’ case “was not adequately investigated or referred for assessment despite four separate calls alleging abuse and neglect over four years.”

Though Maples’ parents are already facing criminal charges in connection with her death, the report raises the possible of additional legal sanctions against the state or its officials if they are found negligent in connection with an Oregon wrongful death.

The City of Portland has hired an outside audit and investigative group to look into the police department’s handling of the 2006 death in custody of James P. Chasse Jr, according to a recent article in The Oregonian.

Chasse died of what the newspaper describes as “broad-based blunt-force trauma to the chest”, including 26 breaks to his ribs. An initial investigation by Portland’s police chief found that only one officer had violated department policy in relation to Chasse. A later investigation by the police commissioner ordered a two-week suspension for two officers. Last October, however, the city auditor ordered a further investigation. The city will now hire a California firm that specializes in cases like this to review all aspects of the department’s conduct relating to Chasse and his death.

Cases like Chasse’s raise the issue of Portland wrongful death. The mere fact that someone has been taken into police custody does not give law enforcement officials the right to mistreat them, or to sweep Oregon mistreatment under the rug if it occurs.

Following up a story I blogged about last month (see my October 22 entry), developments in the Oregon shooting death of Portland hunter Frank Means have led his family to announce that they will initiate an Oregon wrongful death claim against his killers.

Means was found shot to death near the town of Fossil, along the John Day River, on October 8. The Oregon State Police became involved in the investigation after Means’ widow criticized the conduct of the local sheriff’s office. Investigators eventually concluded Means’ death was the result of a dispute with other hunters. According to a report in The Oregonian Means, who had been drinking (an autopsy put his blood alcohol level at 0.24 percent), believed another hunting party was attempting to steal a deer he had shot. Means threatened the other hunters with a handgun, shot back when they attempted to disarm him, and was then killed by gunshots from at least two of the other hunters. Last week, a Wheeler County grand jury refused to hand down charges against Means’ killers, ruling that they acted in self-defense.

Oregon Public Broadcasting reported afterwards that Means’ widow was “devastated” by the news and has hired an Oregon wrongful death attorney, intending to file a civil Oregon wrongful death lawsuit. “I just can’t understand that when somebody is shot five times that a grand jury could find that it was justified,” Jackie Means told OPB. “My husband was a wonderful guy, and he may have been drunk out there, but he was in his own campsite. I am having a real difficult time with this.”