Lawsuit Filed Over TASER Gun Misuse by Deputies

Last year Cesar Silva died following a confrontation with Los Angeles County deputies. His widow is suing both the county and Taser International, the company that manufactures the stun gun, with her husband’s wrongful death.

According to the Sheriff’s Department, deputies responded to a neighborhood disturbance call in November 2007. When they tried to arrest the 32-year-old Silva, he did not cooperate. Instead, he put up quite a fight, struggling with at least five deputies and injuring two of them. According to the lawsuit, deputies beat the man with a flashlight and shocked him over ten times with the Taser gun in spite of the fact that he was unarmed.

What the suit does not say is that the autopsy found cocaine and methamphetamine in his body. The coroner determined the cause of death was agitated delirium, a condition which causes blood pressure to skyrocket, the pulse to race, and which can also lead to organ failure. It is controversial diagnosis most commonly attributed to people who die in police custody.

Carolina Silva claims that in attempting to subdue her husband that deputies “went far beyond any reasonable force necessary to detain or arrest” him. The suit also alleges that Taser International failed to issue warnings about the stun gun’s potential lethality.

All but one of the seventy-plus suits filed against Taser International for wrongful death or injury were dismissed in favor of the manufacturer. A U.S. District Court judge axed the $5.2 million in punitive damages sought in the one lost case.