Family of man who died after tasing files suit
The family of a mentally ill man tased repeatedly before his death in May 2017 has filed a federal civil rights suit against the Village of West Milwaukee.
The suit names officers Anthony Munoz and Michael Rohleder, who broke down Adam Trammell’s door and confronted him while he was naked in the shower. Another defendant is officer Danielle Engen, who waited outside the bathroom door but handed her taser to Rohleder when he dropped his own during a struggle with Trammell.
The suit alleges police violated Trammell’s constitutional rights by using excessive and deadly force. It faults the officers for failing to follow state Department of Justice training, which says officers should minimize the use of force and restraint when dealing with someone in need of medical attention.
Police Chief Dennis Nasci also is named as a defendant. Under his leadership, the department failed to “adequately supervise, discipline and/or train its employees,” according to the suit, filed on behalf of Trammell’s family by attorneys Mark Thomsen of Gingras, Cates & Wachs and Robin Shellow of The Shellow Group.
“Upon information and belief, some or all of the individual defendants and other officers had previously used their Tasers in an unjustified and excessive manner without being disciplined,” the suit says.
Attorney H. Stanley Riffle, who represents the village, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trammell, 22, suffered from schizophrenia and had been placed in an apartment on the 5400 block of W. Greenfield Ave. by a case manager. Police were called to check on him after a neighbor reported he had been running around naked in the hallway and she was concerned he might harm himself.
Engen told internal investigators she had been called to the building 10 to 15 times during her career and expected “a mental health type of situation.”
District Attorney John Chisholm declined to file criminal charges against Munoz or Rohleder, who remain on full duty and likely will not face discipline, Nasci said last month.
Engen was not a target of Chisholm’s investigation. She has since taken a job with a different Wisconsin police department, according to Nasci.
Records show the officers tased Trammell as many as 18 times, depending on the number of jolts of electricity delivered by each of 15 trigger pulls. Nasci has said he believes Trammell felt only six or seven shocks.
Each standard Taser cycle lasts five seconds. This means that by Nasci’s estimate, Trammell was shocked for 30 to 35 seconds. Trammell’s attorneys estimate he endured 92 seconds of voltage over 10 minutes.
Guidelines by the Police Executive Research Forum state that “exposure longer than 15 seconds (whether continuous or cumulative) may increase the risk of serious injury or death and should be avoided.”
Further, police delivered many of the shocks after Trammell was handcuffed, which violates West Milwaukee Police Department policy, the suit alleges.
On a body camera video, Trammell appears confused when the officers confront him, calling him by the wrong name. He splashes water on them twice and raises an arm to push them away when they approach.
The medical examiner ruled the manner of Trammell’s death as undetermined but cited the Taser use — as well as the use of sedatives by paramedics — as contributing factors.
The officers told investigators they tased Trammell because they wanted to get him medical attention, records say.
The autopsy lists the cause of death as excited delirium, a controversial condition often cited when police use force.
Trammell, who was biracial, showed some of the symptoms, such as not responding to police and high body temperature. He did not exhibit others, such as extreme tolerance to pain. On police body camera video, he can be heard screaming when the officers tase him.
“Civilized societies call such conduct state-sanctioned torture,” Thomsen said. “Too many African-American men have died from unlawful use of force or deliberate indifference . ... We must adopt a zero tolerance standard for such conduct and do so now before any other unlawful deaths ... take place.”