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.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 12th, 2010 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Press Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.