Once again police officers find themselves under scrutiny – this time the Salem Police Department. The use of taser stun guns is being questioned in a federal lawsuit filed on March 31, 2010 in Eugene for their conduct in the death of a Salem man, Gregory Rold, age 30. According to the family attorney, Todd Peterson, Rold had a long history of schizophrenia and presented no threat to officers who responded to a call on May 23, 2009.

Rold was tased a total of 16 times over 4 minutes for a total of 158 seconds during a visit at the apartment of his mother, Felisa Rold, in SE Salem. According to Peterson, the officers’ use of excessive force further included the manner in which Mr. Rold, who weighed 264 pounds, was restrained by officers following the tasing spree. He died of cardiac arrest from positional asphyxiation. He was a citizen of Micronesia.

The federal wrongful death suit which seeks $5,955,000 in damages, including claims for punitive damages, maintains Rold’s death could have been averted had the Salem police not overreacted in a situation involving a person of limited mental ability, who presented no threat of harm to police nor made any attempt to escape.

In Oregon there are special laws affecting your money recovery rights particularly so when the Oregon Car Accident involves a rental car. Currently Oregon’s Financial Responsibility Law (which the insurance industry and defense insurance lawyers got passed) provides essentially no insurance then no money for your pain and suffering.

Given this law the question which might next arise is whether self insured car rental companies and fleet operators now have to provide secondary coverage as mandated by that law?

The Oregon Trial Lawyers of which I am a supporter of did succeed in amending ORS 806.130 which totally screwed the person who rented a car and didn’t know if they were covered which now makes such coverage mandatory to better protects the consumer.

In reviewing recent jury verdicts it appears that the highest money verdicts nationwide are for amputation cases where the injured driver loses a arm or foot or a part of a limb.

Since amputation claims claims range from $1,925,000 to $7,500,000 on the top end, amputation claims would rank on the high of of any jury verdict.

Having handled injury claims for the last 17 years, my opinion is they would also rank high in any Oregon trial involving amputation.