Wrongful Death - Article - Taser dismissed from Texas wrongful death lawsuit

Posted on Jan 31, 2006 | Morris News Service

Taser Dismissed from Texas Wrongful Death Lawsuit
By Phillip Yates
Morris News Service

AMARILLO, Texas - A federal judge this month granted a motion to dismiss Taser International Inc. from a civil lawsuit filed against it by the widow of a man who died after Amarillo police used a Taser to subdue him in 2003.
U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson on Jan. 5 dismissed the company from the wrongful death suit filed by Georgia Ann Nowell against Taser International Inc., the city of Amarillo and two Amarillo police officers because she failed to respond to Taser's motion to dismiss the company from the suit and an amended complaint failed to support her claims against the company, documents show.
“The Court finds no new factual basis to sustain (the suit's) claims, only unsupported legal conclusions for which dismissal is the appropriate remedy,” Robinson wrote in her order to dismiss Taser International Inc.
Twelve wrongful death or injury lawsuits have been dismissed or judgment entered in favor of Taser International in the past 18 months, according to the company.
“We feel vindicated by this dismissal, and we will continue our ongoing strategy of aggressively defending this type of litigation,” said Doug Klint, Vice President and General Counsel of Taser International in a prepared statement. “We are committed to protecting the integrity of this company and its products.”
Georgia Nowell's husband, Troy Dale Nowell, 51, died Aug. 4, 2003, after police arrested him and used a Taser electrical stun device several times to subdue him when he resisted. Amarillo Police Department personnel said Nowell had assaulted three people in their 70s.
The APD officers in their response to the suit denied all of the allegations against them and said they were acting “within the course and scope” of their duty, court records show, and that the “use of force against Nowell was reasonable under the circumstances.”
According to a final autopsy report received by the Amarillo Police Department, the 47th District Attorney's office and Potter County Justice of the Peace Thomas Jones, Nowell died of cardiopulmonary arrest during a violent, physical struggle.
The report listed Nowell's pre-existing health conditions of arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease as contributing factors, the officials said .

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