Paramedic who injected Elijah McClain with ketamine before his death avoids prison

The former paramedic who injected Elijah McClain with a powerful sedative avoided prison and was sentenced to probation Friday after being found guilty of murder in the Black man’s death, but this is the latest in 2020. It helped fuel protests against racial injustice.

Jeremy Cooper was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide in a jury trial last year and could have been sentenced to up to three years in prison. In 2019, a massage therapist was stopped by police as she was walking home in a Denver suburb and administered ketamine to McClain, 23, who was forcibly detained.

Colorado EMT found guilty in Elijah McClain’s death, prompting urgent reassessment of police detention protocols

The verdict ends a seven-month series of trials that resulted in the conviction of a police officer and two paramedics. Criminal charges against paramedics and emergency medical technicians involved in police custody incidents are rare.

The other paramedic and police officer sentenced in McClain’s death received harsher penalties than Cooper after being found guilty of additional assault charges.

McClain’s mother told the judge before Friday’s sentencing that McClain’s death was the fault of everyone who was there that night, not just the convict.

“It’s an eternal shame for everyone,” Sheneen McClain said.

She said Cooper “did nothing” to help her son while he was in police custody — didn’t check his pulse or breathing or ask how he was doing — then gave him an overdose injection. . of ketamine.

Experts say these convictions were unprecedented before 2020, when the killing of George Floyd sparked a nationwide reckoning over racist policing and deaths in police custody. It is said that it would be free.

At least 94 people died after being sedated and restrained by police from 2012 to 2021, according to an Associated Press investigation in collaboration with Frontline and the Howard Center for Investigative Reporting.

McClain’s name became a rallying cry in the protests against racial injustice in policing that swept the nation in 2020.

“Without consideration of criminal justice and the fact that people of color suffer at disproportionately high rates at the hands of police use of force and violence, there is no way this could have resulted in any charges, let alone a conviction. “The chances of it happening are very low,” he said. David Harris, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh and an expert on racial profiling, said:

Harris said juries are often reluctant to second-guess the actions of police and other first responders, so it was surprising that the two officers were acquitted after a weeks-long trial. He added that it was not something that should be done.

“It’s still very difficult to convict,” he said.

Cooper said during the hearing that he regretted not being able to save McClain.

“Elijah, I want you to know that I would do anything to make a difference,” Cooper said, as if speaking to McClain. “I never meant for anyone to hurt you.”

He added that he wished he had known more at the time, hinting that he could have used that knowledge to help McClain.

Sheneen McClain left the courtroom while Cooper spoke, but later returned.

The judge presiding over Friday’s hearing sentenced former EMT Peter Ciczniec to five years in prison in March for manslaughter and second-degree assault, the charges the defendant faced. It was the most serious of the charges. This was the shortest sentence allowed by law.

Previously, Judge Mark Warner sentenced police officer Randy Rodema to 14 months in prison for criminally negligent homicide and misdemeanor assault.

Prosecutors initially declined to file charges in connection with McClain’s death because an autopsy did not reveal the cause of his death. Democratic Gov. Jared Polis ordered the investigation reopened in 2020.

A second autopsy determined that McClain died from being injected with ketamine after being forcibly restrained.

Since the killings of Floyd, McClain and others have focused attention on deaths in police custody, many departments, emergency response units and the institutions that train them are reconsidering how they handle suspects. But Candice McCoy, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said it could take years to gather enough evidence to show whether such efforts are effective.

Cooper injected McClain with ketamine after police stopped him on his way home. Officers then referred to a report of a suspicious person. McClain was unarmed and had not been charged with violating any law.

Medical experts said McClain was already weakened by the forced restraints and briefly lost consciousness by the time he was given the sedative.

On the way to the hospital, he went into cardiac arrest and died three days later.

Cooper’s attorney did not immediately respond to calls and emails seeking comment on the ruling.

Since McClain’s death, the Colorado Department of Health has told paramedics not to administer ketamine to anyone suspected of having excited delirium, but a since-retracted ER doctor’s report said it may not be possible to administer ketamine to anyone suspected of having excited delirium. It was stated that symptoms appeared. Doctors’ organizations argued that this was an unscientific definition rooted in racism.

The protests against McClain and Floyd also sparked a wave of state laws restricting the use of neck holds, known as carotid restraints, which cut off circulation and chokeholds, which cut off breathing. At least 27 states, including Colorado, have placed some restrictions on this practice. Only two people had been banned before Floyd was killed.

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Sheneen McClain told The Associated Press ahead of Friday’s hearing that justice had not been served. She said the two Aurora police officers who were acquitted, as well as other firefighters and police at the scene, were complicit in her son’s murder.

“I’m waiting for Heaven to pass its verdict on you,” she said. “Because I know that Heaven never misses the mark.”