Taser's allegations against lawyer, doctor were 'scandalous'

May 4, 2010
By Lori Culbert and Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has roundly rejected attempts by Taser International to discredit a lawyer and a medical expert who participated in the Braidwood inquiry into the use of the controversial weapons in this province.

In a written ruling released Monday, Justice Robert Sewell said allegations of bias and dishonesty against lawyer Art Vertlieb and Dr. Keith Chambers were "unnecessary, scandalous and vexatious," and ordered the company that manufactures Tasers to pay their legal costs.

However, the Arizona-based company also achieved a victory in the ruling, as Sewell gave it the go-ahead to pursue its legal challenge of the commission's damning report into the conducted-energy weapons.

Sewell rejected as premature an attempt by B.C.'s attorney-general to throw out Taser International's application for a judicial review into the report by Commissioner Thomas Braidwood.

Braidwood's inquiry probed the death of Polish traveller Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport in October 2007. The RCMP Tasered Dziekanski five times, leading to two commissions: one into the circumstances of his death and the other into the use of conducted-energy weapons by police officers.

Braidwood issued the commission's findings in June 2009 and concluded that Tasers, in some circumstances, could cause death or severe injury. He also set out recommendations for Taser use, which have now been adopted by peace officers in B.C.

Taser International sought the judicial review, to be held over three days in July, to try to get these findings quashed.

The company also asked for declarations that Vertlieb, the commission's counsel, and Chambers, a medical consultant, were guilty of "dereliction of duty" that led to a "reasonable apprehension of bias" against Taser. The company further alleged that Chambers was guilty of "dereliction of duty to be honest."

Sewell ruled the July hearing will not include the accusations against Vertlieb and Chambers, who only provided assistance in collecting or collating documents for Braidwood and made no submissions or findings themselves.

"I have concluded that the declarations sought against Mr. Vertlieb and Dr. Chambers do constitute an abuse of process. I consider that the allegations made against them are unnecessary, scandalous and vexatious," Sewell wrote.

"I conclude that the allegations here are motivated at least in part by a desire to embarrass Mr. Vertlieb and Dr. Chambers."

The judge gave Taser International a severe tongue-lashing, ordering it to pay some of Vertlieb's legal bills and all the legal costs for Chambers -- against whom the most serious accusations were levelled.

Of Monday's ruling, Vertlieb said: "The outrageous allegations against Dr. Chambers, falsely accusing him of wrongdoing, I'm glad they've been resolved."

However, Taser International has a right to the judicial review, Sewell wrote, because "it seems to me that the report and recommendations of the Study Commission could have important commercial implications for the [company]."

Sewell hastened to add that he was not making any conclusions one way or the other about this possibility. (Taser International worries that having its weapons declared killers would damage its sales.)

Taser can challenge B.C. inquiry report

May 3, 2010
The Canadian Press

Taser International can proceed with its legal challenge of a British Columbia public inquiry report that was prompted by the death of Robert Dziekanski, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled Monday.

The B.C. government wanted the challenge dismissed. But Judge Robert Sewell found the attorney general failed to prove that the Arizona-based company's petition asking the court to throw out the report and all of its recommendations would surely fail or that it had no right to judicial review.

"In this case, it seems to me that the report and recommendations of the study commission could have important commercial implications for the petitioner," the judge wrote, noting that he was not saying that it does or does not — just that it could.

Taser, which makes stun guns, launched a legal challenge last year after commissioner Thomas Braidwood released a report concluding that shock weapons pose a risk of serious injury or death. Braidwood set out recommendations for their use, including a caution against multiple stuns.

The report followed the first phase of a public inquiry prompted by Dziekanski's 2007 death.

Sewell noted Taser's allegations — that the report findings are not based on the evidence presented — have not been tested in court.

His ruling means they will be, with a court hearing expected in July.

But the judge also rapped Taser for "unnecessary, scandalous and vexatious" allegations of bias against inquiry commission lawyer Art Vertlieb and Dr. Keith Chambers, a physician who helped the commissioner interpret much of the medical information submitted as evidence.

Sewell called the allegations against the two men "an abuse of process" and dismissed the company's petition for a declaration against them.

"I conclude that the allegations here are motivated at least in part by a desire to embarrass Mr. Vertlieb and Dr. Chambers," the judge wrote.

Taser has a history of aggressive legal action to defend its products and last year boasted that it had won its 100th dismissal of a liability lawsuit.

A lawyer for the company, David Neave, simply said the challenge will continue.

"We'll be proceeding with respect to the hearing on the report itself in July, and we'll see what the court has to say," Neave said in an interview.

"Taser does not believe that the basic Canadian principles of fairness were followed with respect to the manner in which the conclusions were arrived at in the report."

Both the B.C. Solicitor General and the RCMP endorsed the inquiry recommendations, which have already been implemented in the province.

The public inquiry was prompted by Dziekanski's death in October 2007 after a confrontation with RCMP.

Police were summoned after an agitated Dziekanski began throwing furniture around. He was then jolted several times with a stun gun.

The would-be migrant from Poland died on the floor of the airport in front of stunned witnesses.

The first phase of the inquiry looked at the use of shock weapons in general by law enforcement agencies in B.C.

The second phase of the inquiry, which wrapped up last fall, looked specifically into Dziekanski's death. The report from that phase hasn't been released but is expected to be out by this summer.

Taser did more to kill Dziekanski than restraint: Expert

May 14, 2009
By Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun

Being Tasered five times by RCMP officers contributed more to the death of Robert Dziekanski than being physically restrained by police, an expert doctor told the Braidwood inquiry Thursday.

Dr. Keith Chambers, a Vancouver epidemiologist, found there were two factors that contributed to the Polish man's death at the Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14, 2007 — the five Taser shots fired at Dziekanski and the subsequent physical restraint by four Mounties.

He said the Tasering of Dziekanski appears on the bystander-shot video to have been a great deal more stressful to him than the act of physical restraint.

"The video shows the greater impact on Mr. Dziekanski of the Taser," Chambers told inquiry commissioner Thomas Braidwood, a retired judge.

The doctor's report on Dziekanski's death, submitted as evidence, concluded "the act of Tasering Mr. Dziekanski for 31 seconds over a period of 49 seconds contributed more to his stress response and subsequent demise than physical restraint."

The doctor was vigorously cross-examined by a lawyer representing the U.S. manufacturer of the conducted energy weapon.

But Chambers disagreed with the lawyer's suggestion that Dziekanski's death was coincidental to being Tasered.

"I couldn't disagree more," Chambers testified.

"To say it's coincident is wrong. Mr. Dziekanski died for a reason."

Getting jolted by the weapon's 50,000 volts of electricity "must be quite frightening, very painful and quite dangerous in terms of falls and other issues," Chambers said.

He also suggested the Taser could have malfunctioned and delivered a higher electrical current that expected.

Chambers pointed out that Dziekanski had been in a state of stress when he left his home in Poland 20 hours earlier and spent another stressful nine hours looking for his mother at Vancouver's airport.

'He was doing well — he did not have a cardiac arrest," the doctor pointed out of the period before police arrived.

"Something happened when the officers did the intervention," he added.

Police were called when Dziekanski began throwing furniture.

Seconds after police arrived, Dziekanski was Tasered and handcuffed. He stopped breathing and died at the scene.

Chambers concluded the "mechanism of death was most likely the creation of a hyperadrenergic state that caused or brought on a fatal arrhythmia."

Hyperadrenergic state is used to describe the physiological response to acute stress that triggers adrenalin and may have caused Dziekanski to hyperventilate and increase his blood pressure and heartbeat.

Chambers said he couldn't rule out the possibility of "direct capture of the heart" by the Taser shocks and the development of ventricular tachycardia, or a rapid irregular heartbeat.

Dr. Charles Kerr, a Vancouver cardiologist, testified by phone from Boston that Dziekanski had normal blood pressure and a relatively normal heartbeat, based on medical evidence from Poland.

Kerr submitted a report last month to the inquiry, saying: "I am in complete support of Dr. Chambers' thoughtful and succinct 'summary opinion.'

"It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Taser applications contributed as a major cause of Mr. Dziekanski's death, certainly through metabolic effects and development of a hyperadrenergic state, but not excluding a direct induction of a ventricular arrhythmia by the Taser application."

Kerr's report said he believes "that there is a very high probability that the multiple Taser applications were instrumental in the development of malignant ventricular arrhythmias and death."

Dziekanski's death following Taser jolts no coincidence: expert

The fatal heart arrhythmia that led to cardiac arrest was caused by Dziekanski's struggle with the RCMP, the use of the Taser, or a combination of the two, [Dr. G.K.] Chambers, an emergency room physician and an expert in cause of death, testified Thursday ... "The video shows us that the greater impact on Mr. Dziekanski was the Tasering," Chambers testified.

See Dr. Chambers' complete written opinion here.



May 14, 2009
CBC News

Robert Dziekanski's death after an RCMP officer jolted him five times with a Taser stun gun was no coincidence, a physician told the Braidwood inquiry on Thursday.

Dr. G.K. Chambers, an epidemiologist based in Vancouver, rejected the suggestion put forward by a lawyer for Taser International — the firm that manufactures the electrical stun gun — at the inquiry, which is looking into the death of the Polish immigrant at Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14, 2007.

The fatal heart arrhythmia that led to cardiac arrest was caused by Dziekanski's struggle with the RCMP, the use of the Taser, or a combination of the two, Chambers, an emergency room physician and an expert in cause of death, testified Thursday.

And, he said, the video of the event shot by a witness makes it obvious which was the more aggravating factor.

"The video shows us that the greater impact on Mr. Dziekanski was the Tasering," Chambers testified.

Chambers said that prior to Dziekanski's fatal confrontation with the Mounties, he was fine, even though he had spent a stressful nine hours trapped at the airport following a 20-hour flight from Poland.

David Neave, the lawyer for Taser International, suggested Chambers was speculating, and that Dziekanski's death was simply a coincidence.

Chambers said he couldn't disagree more.

"If the way out of this problem is to stick our heads in the sand and say this was coincidence, then I think we are doing society a disservice," Chambers said.

"I think it is incumbent upon us to give our best opinion, but to say it's just coincidence — it's just wrong."

Expert tells inquiry Taser likely most significant factor in Dziekanski death

"... Several say the Taser played a part in Dziekanski's death, while others - mainly those paid by the weapon's manufacturer - told the B.C. inquiry it had no impact ..."

See Dr. Chambers' complete written opinion here.

May 14, 2009
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER, B.C. — The multiple stuns from an RCMP Taser were likely the most significant factor in Robert Dziekanski's death, an epidemiologist told a public inquiry Thursday, adding to the litany of diverging medical opinions presented at the ongoing inquest.

Dziekanski died at Vancouver's airport in October 2007, after four RCMP officers were summoned to deal with the agitated man as he threw furniture around the arrivals area. Within seconds, an officer jolted him several times with the Taser.

A collection of experts from Canada and abroad have been called to testify at the inquiry.

Several say the Taser played a part in Dziekanski's death, while others - mainly those paid by the weapon's manufacturer - told the B.C. inquiry it had no impact.

The latest opinion came from Dr. Gordon Keith Chambers, a Vancouver-based epidemiologist who testified Thursday that the Taser stuns likely had the greatest impact in stopping Dziekanski's heart as he lay on the airport floor.

He also discounted much of the research that Taser relies upon to portray its weapon as safe.

Chambers submitted a report to the inquiry that said it appeared Dziekanski died of a fatal heart arrhythmia caused by the jolts from the Taser and the stress of being restrained by police.

But he said Dziekanski's response to the stun gun - his screaming and struggling - was much stronger than when he was pinned to the floor, suggesting the Taser had a much larger effect.

"So while both most likely contributed to the death of Mr. Dziekanski, in my opinion the act of Tasering ... contributed more to his stress response and subsequent demise than physical restraint," Chambers wrote in his report.

He also said Dziekanski's deteriorating condition after he was handcuffed - he quickly went unconscious and within seconds started turning blue - suggests Dziekanski died much sooner than police have said.

Chambers said the only video evidence of anyone checking Dziekanski's pulse - a security guard feeling the man's neck for a few seconds - would be inadequate to determine whether he had a heartbeat.

An autopsy concluded Dziekanski died of "sudden death during restraint," a little-understood term that has been used when no physiological cause of death can be found.

Chambers said the witness video, the results of an autopsy and Dziekanski's medical history can be used to rule out several other possible causes of death, such as heart disease, alcohol or drug impairment or mental illness.

He said in absence of any other potential cause, the only conclusion left to be drawn is that Dziekanski's encounter with police, and most significantly the use of the Taser, caused his heart to stop.

A lawyer for Taser International, which has long insisted the weapon cannot kill, spent hours challenging Chambers' opinions in a heated cross-examination.

David Neave cited several studies that he said showed the Taser is safe and hasn't been linked to fatal heart arrhythmias.

But Chambers called Neave's examples, several conducted by researchers with links to Taser, "failed" studies that drew conclusions not supported by the data.

He said the sample sizes were too small, the participants were not randomized, and information was often collected by police officers or other people who use the weapons, rather than by independent experts using standard research methods.

"What's missing in these studies is that, when we are looking at rare events, to actually figure out what's going on, you need large sample sizes," he said.

"These small studies ... are probably not large enough to support the claims that are being made."

Chambers did agree that it would be rare for a Taser to cause a death - rare enough that a sample of a few hundred people wouldn't reveal the risk.

Taser studies flawed, epidemiologist says

May 24, 2008
Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun

The studies that have been done to determine the risks of the Taser stun gun are flawed, a Vancouver epidemiologist told a provincial Taser inquiry Friday.

"I don't think you can extrapolate the results to the real world," said Dr. Keith Chambers.

He recommended that until more research is done to resolve the many unanswered questions about the risks and benefits of the weapon, limits on its use, with standardized guidelines, should be put in place.

Chambers said the "genie is already out of the bag," meaning it may be too late to conduct proper controlled trials of the weapon. But outcomes could be tracked with better systems of data collection.

He said one of the problems with existing research studies is that the circumstances in them don't occur in the real world. Most of the people on whom Tasers were tested were healthy volunteers who received a single five-second electrical jolt, which incapacitates a person by contracting muscles.

The earliest Taser research involved testing on pigs.

"Animal studies and volunteer studies don't support the real world and don't measure the magnitude of the harms and benefits," said Chambers, an epidemiologist who designs medical research studies. "In my mind, we have no idea of the relative risk in a large population due to Taser use."

In the studies that have been done, the sample sizes were too small to obtain reliable results, he said. For example, one study used only 66 people. "It's a huge problem, the sample size," he told inquiry commissioner Thomas Braidwood, a retired judge.

He noted that there have been seven Taser-related deaths in B.C., a relatively small number, given the growing use of the weapon by police. "You've got to have large numbers [of people tested] because the event rate is so low," he said. He suggested a proper sample size for a study would be 50,000 subjects.

The inquiry heard from a number of municipal police chiefs and RCMP commanding officers who support the use of the Taser. They said that, used properly, it can save lives and reduce injury to officers and suspects.

More than 300 people in North America, including 19 in Canada and seven in B.C., have died after being jolted by a Taser.

Tom Smith, chair of Taser International, the weapon manufacturer, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., told the inquiry that Tasers are like air bags: They save lives but occasionally contribute to a death.

"Are Tasers risk-free? No, they cause people to fall down," Smith told the inquiry, pointing out that Tasers save 70 lives for every life lost.

But several presenters at the inquiry called for a moratorium on Tasers pending further independent research. One was Murray Mollard, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

He said Friday that government control over Taser use by police in B.C. has been an "utter failure," since "police forces sold the technology to [their] political masters and the general public as a weapon that would be used as a substitute for the use of firearms, thus saving lives."

Back in 2000, when Tasers were first used in B.C., the civil liberties association supported their use based on the premise that they would be an alternative to deadly force. Since then, Mollard observed, the weapon has become "the most controversial use-of-force tool employed by police."

His organization is urging the provincial and federal governments to commission new independent research to determine the risks of using Tasers on people with heart disease and mental illness, and the risks of multiple shocks from the stun gun.

He suggested there be standardized regulations on when Tasers can be deployed, as well as uniform training.

He would also like to see the B.C. government publish detailed annual statistics on Taser use "to provide the public with a meaningful ability to understand the circumstances and justification" for the use of the weapon.

The second phase of the inquiry, expected to take place in the fall, will focus on the events surrounding the death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14, 2007.

After a long flight from Poland, the 40-year-old man wandered around a secure area of the airport for seven hours, looking for his mother, who lives in Kamloops. He appeared tired and disoriented and began behaving erratically.

Dziekanski, who spoke no English, was eventually confronted by police, shocked twice with a Taser and restrained by RCMP officers. He died minutes later.

The B.C. government ordered the Braidwood inquiry to probe Taser use after the Dziekanski incident.