BRIGHTON | A neck hold that Denver-area police used on Elijah McClain prior to the Black man’s 2019 death lasted only seconds but has emerged as a focal point in the first criminal trial against officers and paramedics charged in his death.
Defense attorneys for the first two officers to go on trial closed their case Friday without calling any witnesses. Rather, they sought to use the prosecution’s own witnesses and video that’s been shown repeatedly to jurors to make their case that Aurora officers Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt’s actions weren’t to blame in McClain’s death.
The district attorney initially did not to pursue criminal charges, but the case was re-examined in 2020, resulting in a criminal indictment and becoming a rallying cry for protests against police brutality against Black people following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Prosecutors spent two weeks painting a picture of excessive force by officers who used a neck hold and pinned McClain to the ground after stopping him on as he walked home along a street.
Known as a carotid control hold, it rendered the 23-year-old massage therapist temporarily unconscious. That kicked off cascading events in which McClain’s medical condition deteriorated and he died after receiving an overdose of a powerful sedative from paramedics, according to prosecutors.
The hold lowered the oxygen level in his brain while his exertions during the altercation increased the amount of acid in his body, Dr. Roger Mitchell, a Howard University medical school professor and former chief medical officer for Washington, D.C. testified Thursday.
The lack of oxygen and increased acid created a “vicious cycle,” making McClain vomit and then inhale the vomit into his lungs so that it became hard for him to breathe, Michell said. The lack of circulation to McClain’s brain during the hold caused blood vessels in his eyes to burst, Mitchell said.
Autopsy photos of his eyes, showed in court as Sheneen McClain watched from the front row Thursday, showed brown spots where the vessels broke.
Roedema and Rosenblatt, who are charged with criminally negligent homicide, manslaughter and assault, all felonies have pleaded not guilty and declined Friday to take the stand to testify.
When cross examining Mitchell, a lawyer for Roedema, Don Sisson, said McClain could have caused the increased acid in his body by resisting the police. During the questioning, Mitchell said he could not say whether McClain would have died just from the encounter with police.
“The ketamine is the ultimate cause of death here,” said one of Rosenblatt’s attorneys, Harvey Steinberg.
Use of force expert Ed Obayashi, who spent 25 years in law enforcement and has been following the McClain case, told The Associated Press he doesn’t believe the officers acted maliciously during the late-night stop on Aug 24, 2019. But Obayashi said it’s easy for a carotid hold to be misapplied and impair a person’s breathing.
“It can very easily transmute to a choking maneuver,” he said.
Obayashi added that banning neck restraints can leave officers in a difficult situation when they need to stop dangerous suspects. “The only other option is to shoot the individual,” he said.
Lawyers for the prosecution have disputed the claim that McClain offered any violent resistance that would merit restraining him and using a neck hold.
Ten seconds after first encountering McClain while responding to a report of a suspicious person, Officer Nathan Woodyard put his hands on him, turned him around and said, “relax, or I’m going to have to change this situation,” as McClain tried to escape the officer’s grip.
The encounter quickly escalated after one of the officers said McClain went for another officer’s gun. Rosenblatt attempted and failed to get McClain in a neck hold, before Woodyard successfully applied one and the officers pinned him to the ground. He was injected with ketamine, loaded into an ambulance and suffered cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital.
He was pronounced dead three days later.
The deaths of McClain, Floyd and others spurred a wave of state legislation to curb the use of carotid restraints that cut off circulation and chokeholds that cut off breathing.
Since then, 27 states including Colorado have passed some limit on the practices, according to data provided to The Associated Press by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Only Tennessee and Illinois had bans in place before Floyd was killed.
Closing arguments in the trial of Roedema and Rosenblatt are scheduled for Tuesday. Woodyard’s trial is set for later this month, and paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec are scheduled for trial in November. Judge Mark Warner ruled in January that there would be separate trials to ensure fair proceedings.
Brown reported from Billings, Montana.
How sad that McClain did not just obey officers’ commands.
Obey commands, even if wrong or unfair.
If the commands were incorrect, take its court.
Were the Aurora paramedics trying to make the situation easier for themselves by drugging the patient?
Excuse me but did you not read the officer attacked Elijah 10 seconds after confronting him. 10 seconds doesn’t even give a person time to react to the officers command. Time and time again Aurora cops have illegally attacked citizens without warning. Aurora PD has a racist problem >.< McClain is not the first black man attacked by APD for just walking down a sidewalk. APD and the person who called about Elijah did not see him doing anything illegal, how is looking suspicious walking home from a grocery store suspicious? Cops saw a small black man walking in the dark and decided to light him. APD has made Aurora a "Sundown Town" for black citizens.
Aurora pays out 2 settlements to African American men alleging police mistreatment https://www.9news.com/article/news/crime/aurora-pays-out-2-settlements-to-african-american-men-alleging-police-mistreatment/73-568812858
Aurora Pays $110K for Unlawful Detention and Tasing of Darsean Kelley https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aurora-pays-110k-unlawful-detention-and-tasing-darsean-kelley
Aurora Pays $285K for Yet Another Police Attack on Person of Color https://www.westword.com/news/inside-auroras-285k-settlement-in-alberto-torres-racial-brutality-case-11860461
Aurora, Colorado, to pay $15 million to Elijah McClain’s family to settle lawsuit over his 2019 death at the hands of police https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/19/us/elijah-mcclain-and-aurora-police-settlement/index.html
10 seconds is plenty of time tobey an officer’s command.
All McClaihad to do is follow the command and nothing would have happened.
Same as I wouldo.
Follow commands, if unjust,ake ito court.
(Years ago I wasuspected and placed in handcuffs for the officer’s protection and mine.
When I was cleared, handcuffs weremoved.) (I am caucasian)
The paramedics are no more to blame than the police are in this case. Regardless of any speculation about blame, had McClain just answered questions the entire incident very likely would not have happened. The paramedics did what they were trained to do. I would challenge any one of you to put yourselves in an incident where things were happening fast and decisions made with the information available AT THAT MOMENT. To ask if the paramedics were trying to make the situation easier for them is ludacris and and insulting. They were following protocols. It is sad to make villains out of the people who were doing their jobs in a situation that could have been avoided if McClain had just answered questions.
In EMS, I knowhat goes on.
I never would have requested the sedative nor obtained permission from the hospital physician for its administration.
Was the PT not sufficiently monitored and IV, oxygen and pulmonary resuscitationot started in time? (We tend to notice when a patient becomes unconscious and immediately check for pulse and respirations and start cardiopulmonary resuscitation if needed.)
Why suddenly is the Sentinel not posting comments until someone decides they should be posted. The Sentinel has always just let comments be posted without review.
For many years, suspects have died suddenly after struggles with police. In most of those cases, the carotid or a chokehold was not even used. In those cases the suspects were not even struck or kicked. The medical people could not tell us why they died. It was given the name Sudden In Custody Death. Medicine has not advanced to the point where it can always determine the cause of death. The officers are not emergency medical people. They called for Fire Rescue as soon as they applied the carotid as they were trained. They put McClain on his side as they were trained. That is done to make breathing easier and to try to prevent the suspect from aspirating vomit. The suspect having a mask was not part of their training. To ban the carotid hold makes it more necessary for officers to either shoot someone or give the suspect more chance to get an officer’s gun. This is already happening. There are already videos where officers can’t control the suspect and he gets a gun and shoots an officer. More officers will die as a result of the uninformed actions of the legislature. So, please don’t tell us that you support the police. If you don’t fight and resist the police, you can complain later. The bodycams will support you if the officers are wrong. Worse yet, prosecutors are charging officers who only temporarily grab a suspect around the neck. That is ridiculous. Watch the news and you will see citizens grabbing suspects around the neck briefly to help someone else. You will see athletes grabbing each other around the neck briefly in struggles. You can watch kids wrestling and see them grab each other around the neck. Should all our those people be charged? There is a big difference between temporarily grabbing someone around the neck and a choke. First, officers receive half of the training they should receive in an academy. Second, in a struggle where things are moving quickly, it is instinctive to grab whatever you can. Grabbing for their arms is often ineffective in stopping their movement. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to hear the facts. The police have no voice. Their bosses are not standing up to explain. So, you get only the half truths presented by a biased media.