Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper were convicted of criminally negligent homicide, but the jury split on the lesser assault charges, in an unusual prosecution of medical personnel.

Two Colorado paramedics were convicted of criminally negligent homicide in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a young unarmed Black man whose case drew national attention and forced public safety reforms in the city where he lived and died.

A mostly white jury found the paramedics, Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper, guilty of a more serious charge they faced. But the jury split on two lesser assault charges: They cleared Mr. Cooper of both assault charges, but convicted Mr. Cichuniec of one of those charges, second-degree assault for the unlawful administration of drugs.

The men had injected Mr. McClain with the powerful sedative ketamine while he was in police custody in Aurora, Colo., which doctors said left him near death. He died days later in the hospital.

The trial was a rare prosecution of paramedics, and raised the question of the role that medical personnel play in police encounters and whether they could be held criminally responsible for their actions.

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  • Kid_Thunder@kbin.social
    68·
    11 months ago

    Rage bait not in the article (since it’s just talking about the two paramedic’s sentence):

    Context of the arrest:

    911 call because McClain was wearing a ski mask and flailing arms, though caller noted he didn’t think McClain was armed nor anyone in immediate danger.
    McClain wore a ski mask due to a blood circulation issue that caused him to easily feel chilly.
    Friends believe he was ‘flailing his arms’ because he was probably dancing to music.
    McClain was near his house.

    The arrest of McClain:

    Officers slammed McClain into a wall when they apprehended him
    Officers claimed to hear another shout “He is going for your gun!”
    Later accounts had differed as to which officer’s gun he was going for (they didn’t match between each other).
    A body cam supposedly knocked off during the struggle was picked back up but dropped again with someone saying “leave it there”
    Another officer can be heard telling another to move his camera, which the family’s attorney believed was to try to support their claim that he was going for a gun and so it couldn’t catch the interaction and show he did not go for a gun.
    For 15 minutes, 3 officers held down 5’4" 140 lbs. McClain as he apologized, vomited, apologized for vomiting and said that he couldn’t breath right.
    Officer Woodyard applied a carotid control hold which cuts off blood flow to the brain to render McClain unconscious.
    One officer threatened that he would have his police dog bite him as he already lay handcuffed and pinned.
    An officer tells newly arrived officers that McClain was “acting crazy” and was “definitely on something” and that he attacked them using “incredible, crazy strength”

    The death of McClain:

    Paramedics injected McClain with 500 mg of ketamine to sedate him though the local protocols only called for 320 - 350 mg for someone McClain’s weight.
    The injection caused him to stop breathing and was brain dead.
    Photos were discovered of officers posing inappropriately and reenacting the carotid control hold taken at the site that he was detained and assaulted.

    The coroner

    Aurora PD met with the county coroner prior to the coroner making his final decision on cause of death.
    Aurora PD investigators were present for the autopsy itself.
    The coroner’s decision on cause of death was “undetermined”
    The coroner opined that his death could have been caused by McClain’s own physical assertion comibed with a supposed narrow coronary artery or if he had an asthma attack or choked on his own vomit.
    The coroner opined that it wasn’t clear if the officer’s actions contributed to any of it and that McClain was given a “therapeutic level” of ketamine.
    A later coroner report obtained through a lawsuit listed the cause of death now as “complications of ketamine administration following forcible restraint” though officially remains “undetermined” due to that being the reason on the initial report.

    The protest organizers:
    Protest organizers were charged by AuroraPD ranging from inciting riot to kidnapping.
    One organizer, Northam, was arrested with the aid of SWAT and an armored vehicle.
    Roberts was arrested while jogging.
    Others were arrested at home or at work.
    Charges for everyone was eventually dismissed or dropped.

    The officers:
    After the photo was discovered, one officer resigned and the other three were fired.
    Roesenblatt, was fired because he responded “ha ha” to the photos in a text message.
    Roedema was found guilty of negligent homicide and assault.
    Roesenblatt was acquitted of all charges.
    Woodyard was acquitted of all charges and returned to working as a police officer for Aurora PD in November of 2023 and will be receiving $212,546.04 in backpay (backpay from September 2021 until he was reinstated).

    The paramedics:
    As mentioned in the article, two paramedics were convicted of negligent homicide.