Paramedics were convicted in Elijah McClain's death. That could make other first responders pause

BRIGHTON, Colo. — Two Denver-area paramedics were convicted Friday of giving Elijah McClain a fatal overdose of the sedative ketamine in 2019 — a jury verdict that experts say could have a chilling effect on first responders across the country.

The case surrounding the 23-year-old Black man's death was the first of several recent criminal charges against medical first responders to go to trial, potentially setting the bar for prosecutors in future cases.

It was also the last of three trials of police and paramedics charged in the death of McClain, who was stopped by officers after a suspicious-person complaint. He was injected with the sedative after being forcibly tied up. The case received little attention until protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020.

An Aurora police officer was convicted of murder and assault earlier this year, while two other officers were acquitted.

The jury on Friday found Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec guilty of negligent homicide after a weeklong trial in district court. If convicted, they could face years in prison.

The jury also found Cichuniec guilty of one of two counts of second-degree assault, which carries the possibility of an increased prison sentence and requires him to be taken into custody immediately. Cooper was found not guilty of the assault charge and was not taken into custody.

McClain's mother, Sheneen, raised her fist in the air after the ruling. “We did it! We did it! We did it!” she said as she walked away from the courthouse.

Cichuniec's wife had her head bowed as officers placed him in handcuffs. Cooper's wife sobbed next to her.

Neither the paramedics nor their lawyers spoke outside court. They did not immediately respond to emails and phone messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.

The outcome could set a precedent for how emergency responders respond to situations involving people in police custody, said University of Miami criminologist Alex Piquero.

“Imagine you're a paramedic,” Piquero said. “They may hesitate. They might say, “I'm not going to do anything” or “I'm going to do less.” I don't want to be found guilty. ''

The International Association of Fire Fighters said in a statement that in pursuing the charges, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser had criminalized split-second medical decisions and “set a dangerous, chilling precedent for pre-hospital care .”

Weiser, who convened the grand jury that indicted the first responders, said he was pleased with the verdict.

“We remain convinced that bringing these cases forward was the right thing to do for justice for Elijah McClain and for healing in the Aurora community,” he said outside court.

The city of Aurora said Friday evening that the two paramedics have been fired following their convictions.

The verdict was announced after two days of deliberation. When jurors told the judge Friday afternoon that they were deadlocked on one of the charges, the judge told them to keep trying to reach a verdict.

Police stopped McClain as he walked home from a supermarket on August 24, 2019, after a suspicious person complaint. After an officer said McClain reached for an officer's gun — a claim disputed by prosecutors — another officer placed him in a neck hold, temporarily rendering him unconscious. Officers also detained McClain before Cooper injected him with an overdose of ketamine. Cichuniec was the senior officer and said it was his decision to use ketamine.

Prosecutors said the paramedics did not perform basic medical checks on McClain, such as taking his pulse, before giving him the ketamine. The dose was too high for someone his size – 64 kilos, experts testified. Prosecutors say they also did not immediately monitor McClain after giving him the sedative, but instead left him on the ground, making it harder to breathe.

McClain's pleading words, captured on police body camera footage, “I'm an introvert and I'm different,” struck a chord with protesters and people across the country.

In a statement released ahead of the sentencing, McClain's mother said everyone present during her son's police stop showed a lack of humanity.

“They cannot blame their professional training for their indifference to evil or their participation in an evil action,” McClain wrote. “That is entirely up to them. May all their souls rot in hell when their time comes.”

Defense attorneys argued that the paramedics followed their training in giving McClain ketamine after diagnosing him with “excited delirium,” a controversial condition that some say is unscientific and has been used to justify excessive force.

The verdicts came after a jury in Washington state on Thursday acquitted three police officers of all criminal charges in the 2020 death of Manuel Ellis, a Black man who was shocked, beaten and held face down on a Tacoma sidewalk as he begged for breath.

In the Colorado case, the prosecutor said Cooper lied to investigators to cover up his actions, telling investigators that McClain actively resisted when he decided to inject McClain with ketamine, even though the body camera showed McClain unconscious in the lay on the ground. It also disputed Cooper's claim that McClain tried to escape from police who were holding him — and that he took McClain's pulse as he bent down to give him the injection of ketamine, which others said they did not see.

“He is attempting to cover up the recklessness of his conduct,” Senior Assistant Attorney General Jason Slothouber told jurors in a closing statement.

Cichuniec, who testified alongside Cooper this week, said paramedics were trained to work quickly to treat excited delirium with ketamine and were repeatedly told it was a safe, effective drug and were not warned about the possibility of it. kill someone.

Colorado is now telling paramedics not to give ketamine to people suspected of having the controversial condition, which has symptoms such as increased strength and has been linked to racial bias against black men.

When police stopped McClain, a massage therapist, he was listening to music and wearing a mask that covered most of his face because he had a circulatory disorder. The police stop quickly turned physical after McClain, seemingly taken aback, asked to be left alone. He was not accused of committing any crime.

The case's notoriety means the specter of criminal charges and associated emergency care lawsuits will be a concern for paramedics in the future, said James G. Hodge, a law professor at Arizona State University.

It could prompt them to better document what police tell them about people needing treatment and to ask doctors to opt out before paramedics administer life-saving but potentially harmful treatments to patients, he said.

“The national reporting of the cases against these paramedics is undoubtedly influencing practice in real time,” said Hodge.

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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.