$30,000 for Vermont Woman Who Sees Boyfriend Tasered
$30,000 for Vermont Woman Who Sees Boyfriend Tasered
The State Attorney’s Office of Vermont settled, in December 2013, for $30,000 an emotional distress suit with the live-in girlfriend of a mentally-ill man who was fatally tasered by a state trooper on June 20, 2012. The deceased, MacAdam Mason, called Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center threatening to kill himself and others, prompting a police response. A manifestation of Mason’s mental illness emerged; Mason suffered from brain seizures and was in an agitated state when state troopers intervened at Mason’s house. Plaintiff pled Mason’s infirmities before the troopers and they left, but inexplicably returned.
Accounts conflict regarding what followed. Troopers say they confronted Mason and ordered him to lie on his stomach on the ground. But Mason instead aggressively came at the officers with a closed fist. Plaintiff and her son both claimed Mason raised his hands, palms outward, in a surrender position, took two steps forward and said, “go ahead and shoot me.” The trooper then fired his taser, hitting Mason in the chest. The medical examiner determined that to be the cause of Mason’s death.
The settlement precludes the plaintiff from pursuing further legal action, but Mason’s mother, administrator of his estate, is pursuing her own wrongful death claim. See: Davidonis v. Shaffer, Vermont Superior Court, Case no. 157-7-12 Oecv.
Source: http://www.vnews.com/news/9781048-95/state-settles-taser-death-civil-lawsuit
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Related legal case
Davidonis v. Shaffer
| Year | 2013 |
|---|---|
| Cite | Vermont Superior Court, Case no. 157-7-12 Oecv |
| Level | State |
| Conclusion | Settlement |
| Damages | 30,000 |